Peer Pressure

Last night was my monthly ASG (American Sewing Guild) meeting. I've been a member for about 1-1/2 to 2 years. I try to go each month but sometimes classes get in the way. When I first started going, I felt like an outsider because there isn't much time to socialize. We have announcements, some show and tell, and then jump right in to speakers and demonstrations. Since it's not easy for me to walk up to someone and say "hi", I haven't gotten to know very many people there. A couple months ago I participated in an annual sewing 'garage sale' through our local guild and that gave me the opportunity to sit and visit with several of the ladies and finally gave me a small feeling of belonging. The last several meetings, I've deliberately brought items for show and tell and was thrilled by the interest that many of the other members showed about the patterns I was using. Last month as I left the meeting I was approached by at least 5 different members, strongly encouraging me to run for one of the guild officer positions. I try to avoid committing myself because I don't like feeling obligated to participate in an activity. As long as I feel it's voluntary, I enjoy it but once it becomes mandatory, the joy is gone so I politely refused each time.


This month they announced that several positions were still open and that the elections will be next month. As they described the job duties, I sat there thinking "Heck, I can do that." Dang. I volunteered to run for secretary. Darn peer pressure. We'll see what happens.


My new addiction to knitting is getting worse. I'm about 1/4 of the way through the front of my first sweater and I've signed up for the intro to knitting class that starts tomorrow night. I've used a book to figure out how to knit up to this point and the pattern I'm using uses a lot of techniques that I've had to figure out how to do so I'm worried that the intro class might be too basic now. Oh well, it still gives me an excuse to go back and browse through the yarn store. I'm spending all my free time knitting. It's a huge psychological addiction and I can't seem to put it down to do anything else. Looks like the sewing is getting pushed to the back burner for a while until I can get some of this knitting fervor out of my system.