I’m happy to report that the first Knit and Quit Class went really well tonight. Spectacularly well, in fact! We had 24 people, most of whom were total beginners, being taught by four teachers. I had been worried that people might think the concept was lame or just go along for the free stuff, but it really felt like everybody was sincerely interested in both knitting and quitting. There was a lot of chatter back and forth at the tables from people discussing how long they’d smoked, successful tips for giving it up, and where they’d heard about the class. I was showing off a mohair wrap to my group when one of them asked how much it cost. I said it was about a hundred dollars to knit. She was a little awestruck at first, but then she said, “You know what? That’s ten packs of cigarettes. I’m already spending that much every week or two!” And that‘s what I was hoping they’d go away thinking. Quitting a pack a day habit saves $3500 a year in this country, and you can knit a lot of damn nice things for that amount of money. When the room finally cleared at the end of the night, I was happy to see that a lot of them had taken the free materials provided by Quitline. Everyone seemed genuinely proud of what they’d learned in just one night and excited to continue on next week!

Special thanks to my fellow instructors Leanne, Mel, and Jane. You guys made it easy and fun!