After sitting in the hotel most of this past week I was bored to tears so I did a bit of googling, found a yarn shop a few miles from here, and called a cab for a ride. $25 later I was there.
The yarn shop itself was a bit of a disappointment as they didn't have a very good selection of good quality yarns. Most of what they had was the same acrylic yarns you can find at any Hobby Lobby anywhere in the country. I spent some time pouring through what they had anyway and did find a 1 lb ball of alpaca wool yarn in a dark charcoal gray color that I liked.
At $42 plus tax it seemed a bit expensive to me but I bought it anyway. Hell, after the cab ride I felt that I had to buy something there.
The ladies who were hanging out there were all knitting socks. I spent over an hour chatting with them, all the time trying to get out of there to get something to eat. They seemed fascinated by the fact that this big bearded guy in a cowboy hat knit stuff. I had to open up my backpack and show them a couple of the projects I am currently working on.
Once I finally escaped the yarn shop I went to the pub across the street for a cold beer or 10. I had a good time there. I sat at the bar and worked on some knitting which naturally stimualted some conversation. The general concensus of the patrons at the bar was that my knitting was very cool. LOL
One guy admitted to me that when he came in (I was in the restroom) he asked the bartender about the knitting work laying on the bar and when she told him it was a guy working on it he made a point of sitting on the other side of the bar as he assumed it had to be a gay guy and he didn't want to sit next to one. I pointed out to him just how stupid that was on several levels and he admitted that it was and that he felt pretty stupid about it. I made a point of telling him that subscribing to sterotypes is nothing more than lazy thinking and leads to general stupidity. He agreed.
All in all I had a pretty good time at the pub. I threw some darts, shot some pool, and even got my ass squeezed by a not so bad looking local gal who thought that the fact that I knit is very cool.