Knitting Along

Well, best laid plans always go astray (or something like that). Only one student and one staff member showed up for my first knitting class. With a flurry of e-mails, I managed to scratch up 3 students for the second (2 new and the lonely first class student). So, I spent the first and second class teaching the knit stitch. A few days after that we arranged to shop at Yard Goods -- that was really the highlight of the month. They were so much fun to let loose in the yarn store. Two of the three made it to the third class, and we didn't have a fourth class because all three were done with their Jan Plan class and were leaving campus the day of the knitting class. With any luck, the four of us will get together sometime after the semester starts as they all bought yarn to make a hat with and I promised to help get them started on it. So much for my lovely syllabus!

But, it was a good way to get my feet wet again in teaching knitting. The second class definitely went better than the first. To teach something, you have to be able to break it down into small parts and struggling through the first class got me to focus my attention on my own knitting more so that I could see all the parts. How does wrapping the yarn around your finger really control the tension? What role do each of the fingers play in the larger motion that is knitting? Since I'm usually more of a "big picture" person, it was a good reminder to pay attention to the underlying details -- not just in my knitting life.

I have a tendency to just "knit along" through life -- often concentrating on the next line of directions, the next section of the pattern, getting through a part of the project so I can move on to the next part -- and let some of the details slide. When I try to pay attention to the details, I often feel bogged down and distracted. Maybe I'm just trying to look at the details as separate entities and need to try to see the parts they play in the whole.

Speaking of knitting along, I'm doing the Ready, Set, Knit knit along. I discovered their podcasts last summer and have done two of their knit alongs long after everyone else was done with the project -- the Vermont Felted Bag is one and the other is the Tilted Duster which I've started but not made much progress on. This knit along is the Hemlock Ring Throw. Jared, of BrooklynTweed, has taken an old doilie pattern originally intended to be knit of crochet cotton and upsized it to a bulky yarn. I'm right on schedule with the podcast, which means I'm knitting along with lots of kindred spirits whose presence I can only sense, but not see. Kind of fun!

I need to be careful that I don't knit along in my usual way and miss out on all of the details of this next few months. I also can't allow myself to get drowned by the details and miss the big view. I need to look at life one motion, one stitch at a time, and savor the experience.

OFF MY NEEDLES
The Shrug is done and delivered! And it fits!

ON MY NEEDLES
I took the bind-off out on the one Fetching fingerless glove I'd finished. The pattern said to bind off loosely, but it was so loose that it just curled down into the palm. Not liking the way a project goes often results in it being put aside. Now that I've made a step toward fixing the problem, I hope to finish them up. I also found a male-appropriate pattern called "Dashing" on Knitty.com and will make a pair for my husband (sometime before next winter).

The Tilted Duster is on hold. I plan to do the fronts simultaneously and know I'll need to concentrate to manage the mirror image increases/decreases so haven't had a chance to work on it.

I've been knitting a few rows at night on my Lacy Yoga Mat bag. I'm about half-way up the body of the bag. I've been taking a yoga class at work every Tuesday this school year and there has just been one added at lunch on Fridays, so I could be going twice a week -- I'll need to get this bag done!

The Hemlock Ring Throw is the Ready, Set, Knit Knit Along project. I'm doing it out of the recommended yarn, Cascade's Eco Wool in a natural medium brown. It is knitting up quite quickly and is a lot of fun after working on other projects with fine yarn.

I also started the Norwegian Snail Mittens from the Knitter's Book of Yarn. I bought the Baby Ull yarn at Sakonnet Purls over Thanksgiving. Instead of kiwi green, I'm using yellow. The welts at the cuff were quite challenging, but now that I'm past them, it is going along nicely. I started out on dpns, but went and bought a 40" size 0 round needle and am loving the magic loop technique!

WHAT I'M READING
I've just gone through a quick "knitting novel" reading phase. I used interlibrary loan to get ahold of Knitting (Anne Bartlett), The Knitting Circle (Ann Hood), and Back on Blossom Street (Macomber). I've got Friday Night Knitting Club (Kate Jacobs) on order. They are all pretty light reading and kind of fun. The knitting store in The Knitting Circle is, I think, modeled on Sakonnet Purls, the shop I visited at Thanksgiving in Tiverton, RI.