Yesterday I was part of a flash mob. If you’re not famliliar with the concept, its an event where in some public space, seemingly random strangers break into coordinated action or song. It’s  like a musical come to life. This flash mob was put together by Sock Summit folk, who were so organized as to publish video tutorials for the “ode to yarn” choreography. Friday night, my roommates: Astrid Bear, Lisa Grossman (the Sock Tsarina), and Sandi Wiseheart and I crowded around a laptop to practice. It was fun and incredibly silly. I was thrown all the way back to eigth grade when my friend Sabrina (the cool kid) tried to teach me (the geek) some dance steps. It did not go well then. Fast forward 30 years and take away the onus of taking one’s self too seriously (really, in my opinion, one of the unsung benefits of middle age) and it was better. But my memory is not great, and I had no confidence I could get through the 3 minutes of dance steps, even with the auditory cues from the song. I wasn’t sure whether I’d go through with it.

But at 5:15pm, I found myself milling around with a whack of knitters, trying to look innocuous. (above)  There was so much excitement in the air, and so many participants, that we totally blew our cover beforehand, and that was cool. I ran into Julia Grunau (of Patternfish) while waiting around, and Lisa took our picture. As you can see, we’re ready with our “dancing skeins.”

Then the dance! It was fun! To a song I can’t stand! Totally fun! And the group as a whole looked coordinated and together. With that many people all making the same moves it was easy to follow along. I was glad I participated. At the end, the crowd let out a huge cheer and some skeins were spontaneously tossed into the air. It was a great moment, to be part of something that big and silly and wonderful, with everyone having a grand time.
I can only imagine the great things all the skeins of yarn that were there soaking up all that enthusiasm will become.