Old Meets New

     100+ years ago village women gathered for a quilting bee....40 years ago moms had their coffee clutches.  Then it was taking Jazzercise classes together followed by going for frozen yogurt.  The new millennium brought the coffee clutch back but instead of meeting in some one's home after they get the kids to school they meet at the local Starbucks.  Well tonight I have seen it come full circle.
     When we need to kill some time on "the Island" (Fleming Island for all you not in the know lol) we drag our laptop and hang out at Panera.  Well tonight we did change our routine up a bit. After we dropped the kids off at church (woo hoo all 3) we parked our cars and took a nice 45 minute walk around Eagle Harbor.  Applause please considering I did PT today this really was an accomplishment.  After our walk I volunteered to hang out on the island while Michael went home.  Settled in at Panera I planned on spending the 2 hours playing games and reading blogs but here I am sharing these precious moments with you because this is too cool not to share....
     There is a group of a dozen + women sitting together at Panera.  They've had to pull tables together to fit them all.  So what would this varied group of women with ages ranging from what I would guess to be young 20s to 60+ be doing???? Knitting!! That's right here in the middle of  2011 a group of women are knitting.  This is where it gets even better.  I figured maybe they were from one of the communities around here or possibly one of the churches.  NO these ladies found each other on the Internet.  I kid you not.  So in my lame brain I'm trying to envision a yarn lover's version of match.com.  Couldn't you imagine those ads.. Knit one pearl two WE'LL find a new friend for you!! (Obviously advertising is not one of my fortes) 
    They met through a website called meetup.com  This website is devoted to helping people meet up with others of similar interests!! To show you how out of it I am there are 389 groups with over 40,000 members in 13 countries around the world simply devoted to knitting.  Who knew!!
So have you been to this site?  When the home page comes up it gives you multiple options...where to you live, what are you interested in?  So I decided to have some fun and found myself wanting to join more groups then I could possibly really participate in.  Granted the more rural you live the less choices you have but still I advise a gander.
    So what do you think our grandmas from the 1800's would think of this group here at Panera?  I think they'd order the Broccoli-Cheddar soup and swap out their favorite sweater patterns!

     (Secret: I may have seemed a little stalkerish as I keep staring over at their table absolutely amazed at what they're doing.... Oh how I have always wanted to learn to knit)