February 7, 2007

Socks, Shawls, & Knitting Class

I worked on my shawl last night while watching TV. It's coming along nicely.

Here's how far I am on my second Pedicure Sock. I worked on it yesterday during the day and while at the Knitting Class.

Miss "Ran-Out-of-the-Room-in-Tears" didn't come to the class. My left handed student is already scoping out patterns and making "things." She got a book on making knitted toys and the one she's working on is made from just a garter stitch square. So, she's off and running. One of the other students who really wasn't sure if she wanted to learn to knit or if she just thought she did, turned the corner when she found out she was going to be a grandmother for the first time. Now she's really making progress! And another brand newbie arrived last night. One of the kids tried to teach her the knitted cast on and gave up. So I finished it off and got her knitting on the first row. She was really a newbie as her first questions were: "How much yarn do I need to cut off?" and "Do I have to use needles?"

Not too much else new going on around here. Maybe, when it warms up today, I'll take the baby out in the back yard along with my spinning wheel and I'll do a bit of making yarn instead of making something out of yarn!

January 23, 2007

More Gauntlets

Didn't get a chance to work on the pinwheel sweater yesterday. My son bugged me about finishing his gauntlets. I got one done and the other about half way. Should be able to finish them today.

Now for our ration of cute for today:

For some reason, GD decided the dog was a good chair. Fortunately her fascination with it didn't last long, and Sugar's patience lasted the same amount of time!

Our snow day yesterday was really a holiday. Didn't get much work around the house done at all. Well, not exactly true... four loads of laundry and one load of dishes.... We watched movies, napped and knitted all day. I had foggy head from my cold, so my drive to do much of anything was gone. Now today we play catch up. And I have class #2 of my infamous knitting class. I'm going to try teaching those still having difficulty with the long tail cast on, the knitted cast on. I realized that if I can teach them that, not only can they cast on but they already know how to knit!

January 23, 2007

More Gauntlets

Didn't get a chance to work on the pinwheel sweater yesterday. My son bugged me about finishing his gauntlets. I got one done and the other about half way. Should be able to finish them today.

Now for our ration of cute for today:

For some reason, GD decided the dog was a good chair. Fortunately her fascination with it didn't last long, and Sugar's patience lasted the same amount of time!

Our snow day yesterday was really a holiday. Didn't get much work around the house done at all. Well, not exactly true... four loads of laundry and one load of dishes.... We watched movies, napped and knitted all day. I had foggy head from my cold, so my drive to do much of anything was gone. Now today we play catch up. And I have class #2 of my infamous knitting class. I'm going to try teaching those still having difficulty with the long tail cast on, the knitted cast on. I realized that if I can teach them that, not only can they cast on but they already know how to knit!

January 17, 2007

Way cool new Harry Potter knitting book. Sure wish I could find out what kind of patterns are inside. But I may have to buy it just on principle.

My first knitting class was last night. First bump in the road was that half the adult students didn't bring needles or yarn . We fixed that by borrowing some from the 2nd Grade class room (Waldorf school, kids are taught knitting in the classroom.) Next hurdle was how to tie a slip knot . Then we got on to casting on. Those that were really interested in learning how to knit, did quite well and even moved on to the knit st and knitted a couple rows. Those that were obviously there out of duty or for the social aspect not so much. I really hate the "see how stupid I am, I can't even knit" attitudes....

But, everyone said they'd be back, thanked me profusely, and seemed to be enthused. The most annoying thing was the fact there were two unsupervised children there that insisted on interrupting every two or three minutes. One knew how to knit, but used a knitted CO rather than the long tail I was teaching. She had to show everyone how she did it differently. And she wanted me to give (not lend) her some of my yarn. Her little sister just kept interrupting and wanted me to give (not lend) her my yarn and my adult daughter's knitting needles. Couldn't take "No" for an answer no matter how nicely it was stated.

With all that said, it was a fun hour and I am looking forward to doing it again. However, I'm going to buy wooden dowels today and make several sets of knitting needles to take and give away. And wind more tennis ball size balls of yarn from my stash to take and give away. (Of course, Murphy being a participant in my life, all the students will show up with yarn, needles and other assorted stuff.

So, I was working on the Pinwheel sweater, and some how moved the increase over one stitch so I had to rip out about ten rows. Picking up the sts again is not easy. I did it, and then figured out I still had one more row that had to come out. Again, I did it, fixed it, started knitting and didn't mark the beginning of the round . Then I put it away to work on when I had less distraction and a rested mind. (I'm figuring sometime in the next century....)