A New Knitting Year!

Happy New Year!

This year promises to hold a lot of adventure for me and my family. Both of our sons will, I believe, graduate from high school in 5 1/2 months and go off to college in 8 1/2 months. Fortunately, we are all pretty positive about those impending adventures. As one son replied when I said "2008 is here" at midnight on New Year's Eve: "Thank God it is finally here!" Of course, he's the one who was already accepted early decision to college and knows where he'll be next fall. The other three high school seniors in the room appeared to feel a bit less confident about the future -- looking forward to it, but not as certain about what it holds and where they'll be.

I didn't get my one knitted Christmas gift done by Christmas. 62" of lace is a lot more than I thought it would be, but I'm about 13" from finishing. Luckily the recipient liked the colors (my sons picked the color out of three possibilities) in the variegated wool, so I didn't have to offer to re-knit it in another colorway. I may use one of the other colors to make one for my mother, but it won't be for Mother's Day -- maybe her birthday next September.

Before Christmas, as I think I mentioned in another post, I ordered Peruvia for the Tilted Duster. I've resisted casting on while working on Christmas, but gave in yesterday after working on the lace shrug all of New Year's Eve. Peruvia is a lovely wool -- the color is an inky blue. I think the sweater will knit up pretty quickly, which will be nice. I was inspired to make the sweater after hearing a lot about it on Ready, Set, Knit -- they did it as their fall Knit-Along. I went back to the first podcast about the project last night -- in essence, I'll be a time traveler, knitting along with people who've already left that space and time.

Today I spent some time putting together my "syllabus" for the Inspirations Jan Plan class I'm teaching on knitting. We'll meet 4 evenings during the short term of January at the college where I work. I've done it in the past, but not for a couple of years. I'm still in touch with students I met in the first class, where I was helping the woman who had taught the class for years. She was going through chemo at the time and having a second person helped her out and I had the fun role of helper without the responsibility of making the class go. I learned a lot from her, but also had lots of time for chatting and getting to know the students. One just e-mailed me today to let me know she'd gotten her first acceptance to law school!

Anyway, I'm still not completely sure whether I'll teach everyone the continental method or the English method. I've heard pros and cons about both and have taught the English method in the past, resorting to the continental method for lefties. I need to do a bit of research about which may be better ergonomically for the wrists and hands. Personally, I love the continental method. I was a belly-button knitter, dropping my needle every time I threw the yarn in the English method my mother taught me. I'm a faster knitter in the continental method and can now knit in the dark or without looking (as long as it isn't too complicated)-- I distinctly remember knitting a mitten during a Harry Potter movie a couple of years ago.

I'll certainly be introducing them to the knitting community online, which will be a new component to the class. I'll also be relying on my Knitter's Book of Yarn to share information about different fiber choices. And, I think I'll try to organize a "shopping trip" to our LYS -- probably between the 2nd and 3rd classes, to help students pick out yarn and projects. It will be fun!!

ON MY NEEDLES
My cardigan sweater has lain fallow since November. I'll get back to it when I finish the shrug.

The shrug is close to being done. I just started on the 4th skein of yarn, which is the last skein. So, that means I've knit more than 1320 yards so far. The third skein had a couple of problems -- knots in the middle and one place where the order of the variegation was reversed at a knot. Strange. The colors are pink, fuschia, and purple, called "Sweet Peas," Gossamer lace yarn by Knit Picks.

Zeben's socks -- I'm past the heel and working on the leg and cuff. The heel is an "afterthought" heel, so I put in placeholder yarn and will go back and do the spiral heel once I finish the legs.

The Tilted Duster! I've got the first 4" of the upper back and am about to do the arm decreases. I reviewed the podcast about the back and am going to try the sloped cast off technique after carefully writing down the instructions.

And, the tea cozy from The Knitter's Book of Yarn -- look here for a photo of one that someone is working on: http://notplainjane.blogspot.com/2007/11/all-cozy.html Mine is a deep aqua blue and lovely pale camel in Malabrigo worsted.

WHAT I'M READING
Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters!! What a neat book! I've made my first test small sock and need to do the second one, but am particularly looking forward to doing a cool sock called "Spiraling Coriolis" which has a band that spirals up the foot and leg. A photo of a pair is at http://public.fotki.com/barneysue/knitting-1/52pairplunge/october011.html, knitted by a woman who appears to have knit a different pair of socks each week for 52 weeks -- and people think I'm obsessive about knitting!