Laurie, if I am ever in LA on a Thursday night, I will so be there. To meet all the knitting celebs! And wine and yarn and laughter! How much fun! :)

Congratulations on building a new, fabulous life for yourself. It's not easy, but you've done it. You are over the hump.

I dressed in a shirt that showed some cleavage once and my daughter said, "Mom, I see your boob crack!" She's 7.

Hubs was in LA last night . . . should I send him next time?? L O V E the Parisian scarves!

Laurie, your stories give me hope! :)

Ooooh, Gwen!! Sapphire Engagement Ring!! I want! Told my BF, if he shows up with a diamond, the answer is NO!!

Oh and congrats, by the way!

Thank you Laurie, for ALL your musings! You ROCK the funny bone!

*Hugs and kisses*

Lovely photos. Long may the group continue and prosper.

Looks like fun to me! I see you bought a crocheted (*gasp!*) scarf in Paris...you might have to come over to the hooker's life... We're a welcoming group too! I've thought about checking out SnB's around here...I know there's on in San Rafael - it was in the paper yesterday! (They had 2 stories on knitting yesterday, and my co-worker got all excited for me and sent me links.)

Isn't the power of yarn amazing? How fabulous is it that it can bring one back from the brink of split ends, hairy legs, and a diet of canned tuna shared with one's cats. Not to mention a life without Target. Gasp! Yay for yarn and great people!

Thanks for sharing the funny!

Aren't SnB groups amazing? When I moved out to the barren wasteland of Arizona I was so lonely. I didn't have a friend out here and knew no one. Then I joined a SnB group and have made some of the greatest friends. I look forward to Tuesday nights every week. I'm so happy you found a great group, too!

Hey Jen! I've done that with yarn before. Lots of times!

I really wish my SnB group drew that many knitters -- looks like such fun! And what a great support group you've found for yourself.

The part where you wonder if everyone will be displeased with you for the rest of your life? Been there. Doing that.

But I totally agree with you on the healing powers of friends with yarn. It's an enormous power in the blog world, but being able to sit and drink and talk about everything and anything with a group of people with whom a love of knitting may be the only commonality is a great, great thing. It's helping pull me out of my depression/crap/stuff too.

I love our SnB group. We have become friends and it is a whole new social avenue that is hard to find after the college bar days.

That's really cool you've found such a great group.

PS: I'm totally you before you went to the SNB, minus the divorced part. Hmm...

Tami, I know that San Rafael is probably easier for you but there is also a group in Berkeley -- Wednesday nights at Cafe Trieste. And occasionally Skein Lane in El Cerrito has knitting circles. (You can't advertise using the words "Stitch and Bitch" because those are copyrighted and you may just receive a cease and desist letter.)

CAP, it's all about finding a group of folks that make you feel welcome. Having a common interest doesn't hurt any either. Glad you have found them.

Dagny... I agree. These folks really do make everyone who comes to snb feel welcome and everyone is happy to show you their newest project, or yarn, or book or whatever. It's been a real blessing!

Plus, there are often cookies :)

The power of meeting female knitters is amazing. I think I would have packed up and ditched Joe had I not found "my girls" at knitting. It gave me a life outside of our small, dark apartment.

We love you Laurie! I missed SnB for about 4 weeks in a row--shoulder injury--and I really started to feel depressed (I cried at the stupidest commercials, not just the Hallmark ones which could make anyone misty-eyed). An amazing group of people, the WeHo SnBers. If it weren't for SnB, I probably would still be just hanging out with my husband, his family and Lifetime. When we moved here I didn't know anyone, I wasn't working and school hadn't started yet so I met not a single person for about 3 months. Then I decided to try the SnB (I went to one when I lived in Boston but it wasn't nearly as much fun) and now I have so many wonderful people I count as friends (well, hopefully they count me as a friend too...). So good to see you. I have some presents for you that I really need to throw in my knitting bag and leave them there until I see you next!

I want a SnB group!!!! There are none, and I seriously mean NONE around here. I'm in the process of trying to get a little something started, but...we'll see.
Glad you liked Gizoogle. Funny stuff there.

I can't wait to go to another one!

Love the cleavage Faith...woo hoo HOO!

Hee hee - someone said "boob crack". I do have some serious cleavage...

I wonder, could I start a group in a town of 1500?!!! It looks fabulous, by the way. :-)

So sorry I missed you! I had a last minute kickball playoff game last night and so couldn't make it. It looks like I missed a great night.

LORI!! This is too funny...
... about three weeks ago, I was talking to a friend who was looking to buy a condo. And I said, "My friend Lori and her husband Tristan just bought this place... etc etc... be sure to interview the neighbors first and check the water heater!" and it was funny because I was like.. oh, my FRIEND Lori and her husband, who by the way I have never met but feel like I know him via the world of snb and knitting websies... hee hee. Yes, I do indeed think of your smiling face when I think of friends I've made at snb :)

Laurie,

Did you ever get the Yarn Girls book I sent you? I've had the flu for the past 2 1/2 weeks and haven't checked in for a while.

I want that! Does anyone know of a Stitch 'n Bitch in Santa Barbara? That meets on the weekend; I work 60 hours a week during weekdays.

Liz R, I did and thank you!! if I can get my you-know-what together this weekend I am sending you a CD I made in return, which you may not think is a cd of thankyou when you see the CHEESEBALL songs I have included LOL. I am making many copies of cheeseball CD because really... I have two words... wilson phillips!!!

:) yes thank you so much!!

Pamela, I think there is a stitch n bitch website that tells you the different groups? I think?

OMG, last night was soooooo fun, wasn't it??? We were all soooo friggin' loud and my stomach hurt from laughing. You know they actually turned the lights off on us at about 9:40? We stragglers were annoyed.

I was becoming exactly as you described: hermit-like. But Cory convinced me that no one would stab me with their needles so I came a few weeks ago and just can't get enough!

Oh, and THANK YOU for not snapping/posting a pic of me where you can actually see who I am. ;-) I have a feeling that my front was NOT my best side last night! Had I seen you snapping away, I might have ducked even further behind Cory.

It really was a great group last nite - a lot of new faces, plus all the old ones. Who knew Faith had such cleavage?!

Also, no fair Miss K is your favorite. It seems she's *everyone's* favorite!

We have a great SnB group here in CT too. What I love is the diversity within the group. There's some sock knitters, some sweater knitters, some crazy fair-aisle shit knitters, some felted-bag-only knitters, and some beginners. And we all help each other out and laugh at each other's mistakes & applaud each other's successes. It's like weight watchers, but with yarn!

There is, in fact, not only a website that lists every SnB (Thanks and shout out to Chicago!!!!) but there is actually a Santa Barbara one. Go to www.stitchnbitch.org.

Monkey, you are my favorite name. :)

I will say it again: monkey.

Dang, I actually AM going to be in LA (From SF) on Thursday night, but you know, work dinner. I'm sure your group is more fun. My group will be discussing the insurance industry. See what I mean?

Thanks, Carolyn!

I have abandoned the great green monster pile of yarn for now. Will return to it when finals are over. Although perhaps it would be a nice, calming break from studying.

Thanks for the SnB group listing! Looks like I have a couple of options...The Napa one is on my way home, sort of. (I get off of work at 6pm...) Or, I could attempt to organize something at work for the lunch hour...hmm....(am I that ambitious?)

Here's hoping I find myself in L.A. on a Thursday sometime real soon!

I feel the same way about a knitting group I just recently joined. There's nothing like meeting and crafting with a bunch of women, (men are welcome too but none have joined), where there's no other agenda accept to hang out, knit, laugh and have fun. I've learned a ton from the various experienced ladies in the group, and one is even teaching me Magic Loop sock knitting! My group has become really important to me in a very short time. Here's hoping that I am able to meet with them for a long time to come.

Darling don't you worry. There are men out there that appreciate a woman's wit and sass even when her butt is bigger than Nicole Ritchie's. I often have to tell myself that every day. But it's true, you're beautiful and funny and will soon have square watermelons. What man could resist that?

Amy: NO MAN CAN RESIST SQUARE WATERMELONS.

heheheheheheeh

my nose looks very pointy!

and it appears that i have no hair! (it's blending into the glorious los angeles sky.)

last night on my way home some guy crashed into a hydrant and there was 2398479235 feet of water spraying up into the air.

i'm glad i saw you last night!

(school is expensive and only ONE program seems to have evening classes. boo.)

I'm convinced a community of knitters can get any of us through every part of life. I'm glad you have such a wonderful group!

OK. Now I am completely lost. Most of the guys I know are quite appreciative of a woman with a fuller backside. My best friend's husband used to feed me lots of food because he said that I could use some help in that area.

Ah Laurie, you so sweet. I constantly talk about your blog to my friends and family--"you know, my friend Laurie was just talking about that the other day..." By the way, at our little Easter dinner, Tristan mixed up the playlist and added a Wilson Phillips song-on his own, I might add--which brought the dinner conversation to a standstill. Our friends looked at us and I said "he picked it" and then there was general agreement that perhaps we should take that off the playlist for next time...I personally didn't see anything wrong with it. Have you seen Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle? There's a scene with two guys in a car singing along to a Wilson Phillips' tape...

Laurie I am glad you found such great friends. When you are emcompassed in so much grief (and I know grief, let me tell ya) it is hard to do the daily things. I am so glad you took that step & found wonderful people along the way!! Your SnB looks so much fun...I am jealous we do not have one here in the IE.

I'm a Laura in LA who knits. No kitties, but I love your tag line at the top. Found you today and wanted to delurk and say hi!

Thanks for pointing me to the Santa Barbara Stitch 'n Bitch. I actually had seen that before, but they seem to only meet during the week when I am totally unavailable. Also, the link now goes the Yahoo "Groups Not Found" page. Rats! Perhaps I could start a weekend one. I will have to think about that.

Great Post!

...try out Friday night at Burbank's UNWIND...wine and 'unwind' with new friends and old....

PLU's....thats what we call ourselves....PEOPLE LIKE US. I started Wollongong's Stitch n Bitch over a year ago and 30 PLU's meet each month - and I always come away with that "ahhhhh - I love PLU's" feeling.

I wish that there was a snb group in my area. There is a knitters guild, but it costs money, and I'm afraid of the word guild... I feel like it sounds much too old lady-like.

I've been lurking for a while... always love to read what you write Laurie!

Sara (yes, our Sara with the biscuit who is also my friend from college) SWEARS she is going to get me to go with her to a SnB one of these days. I will go one day so that I can get over my Knitting Performance Anxiety (i.e. knitting in front of more experienced knitters), which is a totally stupid and pointless thing to worry about, I know, but still.

Catherine... I am not a very good knitter at all, and yet I love snb precisely because you see people of all abilities and we get lots of people who are just learning that night for the first time!

You should come one night, it's a good place :)

Jen, I think of "guild" and think of shakespeare... weird, eh? LOL and thank you for the nice words :)

I love your square watermelons. And Sobakowa. And the fact that you finally ran out of excuses and came back to the fold where you belong.

I so thought of your blog the other day when I left the house in like five totally mismatched handknitted pieces of clothing -- each so fabulous I couldn't bare to remove a single item.

Your stitch-n-bitch looks awesome... Anyone with suggestions for a good SNB in SF please give me a holla'

Off to some knitting conference/convention in Oakland tomorrow. How great is it to have your friends call and suggest that as a weekend activity.

Love your blog.

Okay, I've been reading your blog for awhile now, but never felt the need to comment... until now!! I recognize Faith's Parisian scarf! I bought it in the exact same color in Chile just a few weeks ago! This is a stupefying globalization moment!!

(I bought it because I spent ten minutes at the window trying to figure out how to make it before realizing that it was going to take far longer than ten minutes, and it was only ten dollars, and I might as well get it over with.)

Pamela, you will not be able to find any Yahoo groups that use the phrase "stitch and bitch" in their names. A certain company owns the copyright to that name and sent cease and desist letters to all Yahoo groups using those words in their group name. If groups did not change their names, then Yahoo said that they would terminate the groups.

See http://www.freetostitchfreetobitch.org/

Knitters are the best. What else is there to say?

I would get on a plane to LA this very instant, except here in Yankee-land we have lovely knitters too. They don't even mind that I don't show up mostly, because DH's choral group has the colossal nerve to rehearse on the same night. When I do, it's like I never left.

Knitters are the nicest people. Even Yankee ones.

AAAACKCKKKKK ... I'm having a (gaaaackkkk) yard sale on Saturday .. I feel like I should put on a wife beater and buy a carton of GNC's ...

How freakin' trashy is a tard sale? gross.

Anyway, anyone need some Herb Alpert albums?

... God, I can't wait for this move to be over. I hate moving ... but I'm sick of florida ... and I just want to live somewhere where I can go runnining at 5 a.m. and not sweat before I even start...

... uh, wait, don't go, how about some old Tupperware? a Bread machine? crock pot? old newspaper rack .. anyone? anyone?

Seems like you have found some great chick friends. Everyone needs them. It is always my girls who pull me through the rough times.
How are the square watermelons coming along?
Mia

*sigh* Wonderful! Really great post, great people, and so happy for you.

This gives me hope, for I am in the "Afraid to Leave My House" stage of life. Not because of heartbreak over a man, but because I am stranded in this here miserable state where I don't. know. anyone. And after a while, you get tired of trying, or thinking about trying, because it's all so unfamiliar, and so, I drink wine and watch bad movies with my cat, husband and dog. And it could be SO much worse, and it will get better! It will! Laurie says so.

(and for the record, there are no SnB's here. Knitting groups, yes, but they all involve women over the age of 70)

Laurie, you are quite pretty. I don't say that in the way of "gee, I want something so I will tell them they are pretty" kind of way. :)

And you're not a very good knitter? What's that make me? LOL When I make my next trip to LA to visit my sister I'll make sure the first night in town is a Thursday!

Yep. I know of what you speak. Dried my miserable tears and set out to find my people. Mine are Erin, Jen, Amy, Kelly, Michelle, Kelly, Krista, Sarah Fay, Drea, Jean, Dianna, Denny, Joyce, Megan and all the other amazing women of Team Canada Toronto. Bless crafty women. What a special lot. And yes, I feel actively thankful and consciously aware of the wonder when i am among them.

SnB got me out of the house too. Since I work nights it's easy to get kind of isolated. BTW, what is it that Natalie has? Is it some kind of I-cord?

last night i was hanging out with my knitting crowd and it's amazing. until i'd met them i wasn't laughing nearly enough.

i'm glad you found them.

Sure wish there was a SnB close to where I live. I could really do with some yarn and wine and good people to share it with...but alas it's not to be. I'm stuck in the high desert.

Knitting groups are awesome. I finally got up the nerve to go to one over a year ago, and I am so glad I did. That knitting group allowed me to meet my wonderful friends I now have. In fact we started a mini knitting group just for us called "Go Knitter Go". There are 6 of us, and we take turns meeting at one another's houses. We are in fact taking our first road trip together in two weeks to Maryland Sheep and Wool. I can not wait. Woo Hoo Go Knitter Go!

I'm doing it! This week, I'm going to force myself to get over it and go to SnB. I'm kinda scared just thinking of it, but oh well. Thanks for the inspiration!

I was glad to see you the other night, Laurie. The SnB group has become my haven after two years in LA without any real friends. Now I have somewhere to meet up with intelligent, fantastic, creative, and did I say intelligent? people on a regular basis. It has been good for the soul, though bad for the yarn stash.

Cute. I have a group of friends just like that. Friends that are really, really, extremely precious to you.. friends you drop the minute another penis comes into the picture..

Laurie, it's so cool too see your group and how much fun you have!! Makes me really want to push myself to get out of my "shell" and go to some of our local groups here.

Finally, a reason to take up knitting! (well, that and the donuts are the best at Farmer's Market...)

I just wanted to say i know kinda what it's like to be depressed my husband is in the military and he's great when he's home. .... /but the love for yarn and reading online blogs while looking for a snb in the area has really helped me feel connected to so may it's great so hang in there girl and yeah square watermelons are great... heheheh

Hi there,
I've been through that total self doubt that divorce can bring… in my case, it was just after my 39th birthday. We'd been married 14 years and he replaced me with a 23-year-old. OUCH!! it was my book group that saved me. Since then, I've widened my circle to include knitters (taught myself out of a book and haven't looked back since). I can honestly say, I'm happier now than I ever thought possible. If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. You sound pretty darn strong to me :-D!

wish I was in LA again, so I could go! I feel you about the people pleaser syndrome and the whole story!

Oh Laurie! When you attend the WeHo SnB it's always fun-filled and hilarious. You have that infectious personality that just makes us all giddy and crazy!!!
Last Thursday was a particularly fun night. Thanks again for the faboo wrap from Paris! It's gorgeous, I love it and you are the maximum utmost!

I'm so sad! I'll be there tomorrow and Wednesday, leaving Thursday morning! There'll be no time for fun anyway, but I'll have my knitting in tow....

Amen sister... seems that you've felt exactly the say I'm starting to feel right now... with the whole "brought up to please" others thing.. and how that makes you feel about yourself when terrible things happen beyond your control... it sure helps just knowing I'm not a total nut case *grin*