Impedimentia

I've made enough of the sock for it to get heavy and therefore I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to keep it on my lap as I work in order to take weight off the needles as recommended in June Hemmons Hiatt's The Principles of Knitting.

Looks like the revised edition of that enormous book is out this week.

I can borrow a copy of the old edition.  I should look again and see if it teaches how to do lever knitting or just mentions it.  Lever knitting is supposed to take the weight of knitting and support it by setting one needle under the arm or in a belt and sheath.

I read an online preview of the new edition.  Hiatt talks of two changes since the original book: the Internet and knitting events, by which I guess she means conferences, workshops, and festivals, developments which "sustain [knitters] in this craft..."

I talked last week with half-a-dozen people I know socially, folks I would describe as cutoff from this support or partially cutoff.  All of them wished to go on further with knitting but had, they told me, impediments in their way.  Sorry I can't go into specifics about what was holding them up.  I want people to talk to me freely and not worry that I will repeat what they told me.

I am fine when someone says they don't want to knit but when they say they want to knit and they don't, that makes me want to prod them into doing something about the situation.  It's a question of determining how serious they are and being able to prod them in a useful direction.  However, there is only so much you can do when they're holding a coffee cup and a muffin and you've gotten together for a different purpose.