Last week I went to a yarn tasting. Well, no, the 15 or so knitters who attended the first session of the monthly event didn’t chow down on balls of fuzzy yarn, but they did nibble pale yellow cheese and sip dark red, light pink and pale gold wine from stemmed glasses. They also chose three balls of yarn from the rectangular-shaped dish set in the middle of the long table at Fiberphilia, the yarn shop in Orono where the yarn tasting takes place 5-6:30 p.m. the last Thursday of each month.

The first thing we did, like all good diners, was sample the yarn with our eyes. These are not exact quotes, but the gist of what was said can be reduced to, “Ooh, look at that gorgeous purple” and “This is so soft, these colors remind me of watermelon” and “That pink is wonderful.” Then, also like good diners, we dug in with our hands selecting the three balls of yarn we wanted to try.

I grabbed the dark purple wool, the blue, buff and white variegated and the one in watermelon shades of green, pink and white. The variegated yarns, I learned, were produced by Seacoast Handpaints in New Hampshire. Working with it induced knitting bliss.

Knitters sat around a table and in chairs placed at one end of the room. They brought forth from tote bags all manner of knitting needles – circular, double points, bamboo and aluminum, in sizes that ranged from 2 to 8. They cast on stitches in that focused and intense way common to knitters.

The range of ages of the knitters spanned 20-something to 60-something. One of them was Doug, a student at the University of Maine, who proved the point that real men do, indeed, knit. I wanted to learn more about Doug and his knitting, but he was sitting too far away from me to speak to, and since I was already engaged in at least four lively and interesting conversations all going on at once, it wasn’t possible to add another. Maybe next time.

Beside me, Courtney was knitting a tiny ankle sock in blue variegated yarn for her baby. She said she had been knitting for five years and her first project was socks. Sitting beside her was her sister Danielle, whom Courtney had taught to knit. Danielle said she’d been knitting things for her first baby, due in three days.

Annemarie sat at the head of the table. She said she knits to keep her sanity. She has two sons, Joe and Tom, who are due to finish Marine Corps basic training at Parris Island, S.C., one in October and the other in November. She knits socks and sweaters for her sons.

At the opposite end of the table, Barbara was knitting something on the smallest circular needle I have ever seen. She brought several skeins of her own yarn for “show and tell,” yarn she had spun with a hand spindle.

Sitting on the other side of me was Davida who chose the pale pink Punta del Este wool to work with. She took a pair of No. 2 needles, cast on a few stitches and within minutes, I swear, she had knit several inches of a K2, P2 basket weave pattern so delicate and so perfect for the yarn, it was awesome. She loves the unusual, artistic and difficult aspects of knitting. One project she has in mind is an Icelandic shawl with all the runes knitted in. She told stories of spinning yarn from her coon cat’s fur. She also recommended the knitting book “Poetry in Stitches,” which was produced for our inspection from the knitting library Fiberphilia maintains for its customers.

It was evident that all of those at the yarn tasting had busy lives that involved everything from impending birth to caring for elderly parents, from studying at the university to parenting to jobs and all manner of other responsibilities grown-ups take on in the course of any given day. Yet, they all found time to knit.

Much of the conversation at the gathering was punctuated with laughter and full of good-natured – forgive me – ribbing. But once or twice, and this was to be expected given the high level of intelligence and life experience of those at the gathering, the talk waxed toward the serious. I heard a woman at the opposite end of the table remark that one of the reasons she knits is because her job doesn’t yield a tangible product, whereas knitting does. With knitting she gets to watch a project develop all the way through and to enjoy the process and the beauty. She also gets to hang out with an interesting community of women – and one man – who also love the art and craft of knitting.

“Knitting,” another woman remarked, her comment rising above the flow of talk, “is a reaction to everything that is the same.”

For more information about the monthly yarn tasting, call 866-3423.

Snippets

Learn the gentle art of hand-carding 1-3:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21; and learn how to needle felt a Christmas ornament 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10. Call Purple Fleece in Searsport, 323-1871, for information about fees and other details.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.