In the July 10th Washington Post was an article about social networks geared towards particular hobbies. The article specifically mentioned the knitting social network, Raverly. Being a knitter, I of course joined Ravelry's network and then started a search of other social networks that were focused on some of my hobbies. By performing a quick Google search, I was able to find social networks on miniatures and cross-stitch.
I've had only limited success with the social networking world leading to real life friendships, but I haven't given up hope. Part of my interest in joining a social network was to hopefully widen my friends in the genealogy world. This is a new career path for me and I know very few people in that community. I've been a member of Facebook since the late summer of 2010 and have connected with people from every city I've ever lived in. Only recently have I added to my genealogy network. My goal is to spend time joining each type of hobby oriented social network that interests me as a way to stay current in those communities and hopefully meet some new friends.
In about 2003-2004, I had been a member of the Arlington Stitch 'n Bitch. This group used to meet in the Clarendon area. I really enjoyed meeting up with them and knitting. In 2005, I got a new job that required me to work in the evenings. Unfortunately, my Monday evenings with the Stitch 'n Bitch ladies had to go. In 2010, I was offered a position in my current non-profit job. Thankfully, the job offers regular M-F office hours so my evenings and weekends are now free for me to spend as I choose. After joining Facebook, I tried to locate my Stitch 'n Bitch friends, but to no avail. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the DC metro area, the transient nature of its citizens is a well known and accepted fact of life for us Washingtonians.
One of Stitch 'n Bitch members managed the now defunct Knit Happens shop in Alexandria, VA. I believe that the shop closed in August of 2010. Also, I had read on a local yarn shop's Facebook page that the members of the Stitch 'n Bitch stopped getting together. By some odd coincidence, while I had other commitments on Monday night maybe they did too. After all, life sometimes does intervene in different ways for everyone.
Currently, I'm working on an afghan. I started around 2002 or so and have completed crocheting it. The afghan is crocheted strips of squares and each square is to be embroidered with a different flowered motif. I'm about halfway through with the embroidery and am looking to finish it by the 10th anniversary of 9/11. That in itself is another blog post. Since my goal is beginning to loom, I've been looking for another knitting group to meet up with so that I can stay motivated to finish by my set goal.
Through the Ravelry site, thankfully I was able to come in contact with a similar knitting group. I contacted them and told them what I was working on and that I was interested in joining them in their sessions. They were very open to me joining them; even though, what I'm working on isn't technically knitting or even crochet at this point.
I met with the group on Tuesday night and told them about my search for the Arlington Stitch 'n Bitch group. They knew nothing about them personally. I think someone may have heard of them, but they did kindly tell me about a group who met at the same location on Monday nights.
So now, I have to find out if the group they mentioned are my Arlington Stitch 'n Bitch group!
