Fall Fiber Frolics

*
(what's with me and all the alliteration lately?)

***

I've got to make some decisions here, people. Autumn is rapidly approaching, and there are so many fiber events on the calendar (yay!) that I need to make a decision about which one(s) I want to attend.

Here's what's on the calendar, so far:

• October 6-7: Fall Fiber Festival, Montpelier, VA
• October 11-14: Stitches East, Baltimore, MD
• October 20-21: New York Sheep & Wool Festival, Rhinebeck, NY
  
• October 26-28: Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair, Fletcher, NC
• October 27-28: Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival, Berryville, VA
• November 8-11: Knitting at the Beach, Duck, NC
  
• November 9-11: Knitter's Review Retreat, Berkshires, MA
• November 17-18: Carodan Farm's KnitXperience Knitters Retreat, Graves Mountain Lodge, Syria, VA

This list doesn't even include another knitting retreat that a local Stitch 'n Bitch group is having down at the beach, the same weekend as Stitches East. I'd already decided there were too many other fiber events going on to even consider that one.

Plus, there are some great classes being offered locally. Our local knitting guild is having a special workshop in early September on top-down Aran cardigans. Knitting Sisters in Williamsburg is having Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably workshops in late September. One LYS, The Knitting Basket is having a class on Thrummed Mittens, also in late September -- something that appeals to my always-cold-in-winter hands. And of course, our four other area yarn shops all offer a host of good classes. A knitter could go wild (and broke), taking them all!

It's a fun problem to have so many options to choose from. Which shall I attend? Chances are, the closer the event is to home, the higher probability of my attending. But, ya never know -- I could easily be talked into something farther away, if I'm feeling adventurous.

Which will you be attending?

*

Issy Does Moscow...

...or, How to do a Russian Join.

This past weekend at our "Knittin' on the Lake" retreat, Isobel was kind enough to demonstrate for us how to join new yarn to old yarn in a way that eliminates the need for weaving in ends later.

Filmed by me and embedded here for your edification:


(Feedblitz subscribers click here to see embedded video)


The basic technique: (still pictures of the technique can be found here and here; another video, more professional than mine, can be found here): when joining one strand of old yarn to one of new yarn, wrap the ends of the old and new yarn around each other once, so that there's about a six-inch tail on each side, and then, using your darning needle, sew the wrapped old end into itself, and the wrapped new end into itself. This may require loosening the spin of the yarn just a bit, to work the darning needle through the yarn.

In the particular project in this video, the yarn being used is Noro Silk Garden for the Sursa Shawl, which is being knit using two strands held together, one strand from each end of the same ball of Noro, so that when you get to the end of that ball of yarn, (really the middle), there is a loop, rather than a single strand.

I apologize for the several instances of out-of-focus filming -- the fault lies entirely with the filmmaker. Please be gentle with your critique of this amateur film-making and editing effort.

I hope you enjoy!

:-)

***NOTE: If you've come over from Yarnival, thanks for stopping by! You will find your way back to the latest issue of Yarnival by clicking here.***

Protege' Progress

***

Not much knitting activity going on here this week. I've had an intractable headache for two weeks now, and it has sorta taken the joy out of anything requiring eyesight, (reading, knitting, television, sudoku puzzles, blog-writing, blog-reading, etc.), that is, pretty much anything other than sleep. Here's hoping my new glasses prescription will resolve that. They should be back from the lab sometime this coming week -- I'm praying for Monday or Tuesday. So, anyway, when you don't have any real exciting knitting content or progress to share, the next best thing is to share your protege's progress.

***

You may recall my relating the story of teaching my coworker L. how to knit back in early August. Shortly after that, I took her on her first foray into a yarn shop while in Maryland for work. She fell in love with and purchased some Blue Heron rayon metallic in a colorway called "Deep Space":

Blue Heron's rayon metallic in "Deep Space"
***

I would call that a mix of black, deep navy and a few other shades of deep blue, with, of course, the metallic thread flickering throughout, and I think the colorway is aptly named. The shop owner wouldn't wind that 550-yard hank for my friend, and so, bless her heart, L. and her husband wound it by hand one evening, and here is her very first self-wound ball of yarn:




I then instructed her, by email and instant message, on how to knit her first gauge swatch:

Her gauge is 5 stitches and 8 rows to the inch.
***

L. would like to turn that yarn into a rectangular shawl. I've also been knitting a Blue Heron rayon metallic shawl, and was knitting it width-wise, (like a scarf). Last week I "tried it on" to see how much longer I need to make it, and looked in the mirror and realized that I hate the fact that the garter stitch rows, which look like stripes, run up and down (from neck to mid-back) when wearing the shawl, rather than lengthwise (side-to-side) or fingertip-to-fingertip, when wearing it. It just looks amateurish, and this lovely yarn deserves better.

***

Therefore, I'm going to be ripping mine out and starting it over by casting on to knit it lengthwise. I may even turn it into a Clapotis, but am not yet married to that idea. I do sorta like the mindless knitting of garter stitch. You'd think I'd be heartbroken about that, after working on this thing, off-and-on, for months, but I'm not. It needs to be frogged. My gauge changed significantly mid-stream after I read this article and learned how to loosen up my knitting, and I also made a very rookie mistake in the middle of it -- I joined a new ball of yarn in the middle of a row, which just can't be made to look invisible with this particular yarn, without, perhaps, using needle and thread, and this is knitting after all, and not sewing, so that's not an acceptable solution, in my mind.

***

So, I discussed this same issue with L., and she agrees and is willing to cast on for hers lengthwise, (about 300 stitches), to get her desired 5 feet in length. But since she's a new knitter, I've convinced her to knit an intermediate project prior to tackling something with 300 stitches per row, and so this week she went to Romni Wools back home in Ontario to fondle and purchase more yarn. She told me she was very overwhelmed by the vast selection, and from the looks of that picture on their website's homepage, (click "Home" on their sidebar), who can blame her?! But a very helpful salesperson steered her in the right direction, and she is now proud owner of three balls of Nashua Julia in "Geranium".

She's already begun knitting on her scarf. Progress below:

Nashua Julia in "Geranium"
***

***

The shop owner picked out some plastic needles for her which L. has already decided she doesn't like -- too slippery. So she may go back and get some wood or bamboo needles instead.

I'm quite pleased and proud of my protege! And I hope that she continues to enjoy knitting, and that this is not just a passing craft but becomes a lifelong hobby for her.

World domination - one knitter at a time!

***

Wise women study under Wiseman

***

(Couldn't resist the punny newspaper headline title for this post). ;-)

This weekend I took two classes from venerable knitting instructor and author Nancie Wiseman. Classes were held at Got Yarn in Midlothian.

Saturday's class was on Continental Knitting, which I found is a skill that absolutely requires extended practice. The knit stitch can be picked up after a relatively short time. Purling is quite a bit more challenging. But I can definitely see the value in knitting Continental for two-color/two-handed fair isle knitting and for long stretches of ribbing or seed stitch, where you're switching from knit to purl and purl to knit relatively frequently. The movements are much finer, more precise and less overt than the American/English style method of "throwing" the yarn. Easier on the arms and shoulders, but requiring more time to re-learn to knit with tiny finger movements rather than big hand/wrist/elbow/shoulder movements. Ultimately, I can see that it is a faster method. Initially, however, it is much slower and more painstaking.

As Nancie indicated, with Continental, one must hold tension on the yarn. Since I don't currently hold tension when I knit American-style, my continental gauge is much, much tighter -- so tight that it's hard to move the stitches around the needle. I really will need to practice loosening that up a bit. Nancie recommends picking a project and knitting the entire thing via Continental, as that is really the best way to get the practice. I'm not sure I'm up to that yet, but I may just practice knitting more swatches. I don't have a swatch to illustrate here as I ended up ripping it out to use the yarn for Sunday's class. But it was just a boring garter-stitch swatch anyway, and not really photo-worthy.

I do have a picture of our instructor:

Got Yarn employee Natalie (tall redhead) and Nancie Wiseman
***

And here's a couple of silly fellow TNK members and class attendees:

Rita J. and Robin H.
***

As most local knitters know, Danna Savage, owner of Got Yarn, is closing her brick-and-mortar shop and will just be running an on-line business from now on. So this past weekend was the last chance for knitters (those of us taking the classes) to shop in her store. Everything was 25-50% off, which was really quite tempting. She still had a lot of yarn left, including a ton of Koigu KPPPM, Noro and many others. There were also still kits, books, needles, knitted shop samples, fixtures, etc. available for sale. (She would also like to sell her desk in her back office, so if anyone needs a desk, give her a call at the shop or leave a message). I'm kicking myself for not buying any Misti Alpaca super-chunky while I had the chance. I must have fondled that stuff, (and brought everyone else over to fondle it as well), at least six times over the course of the weekend. It was every bit as soft as the cashmere on the shelf next to it. I may see if she'll still sell me some....

I got out of there without too much damage to the wallet. I bought Nancie's Continental Knitting DVD, (will definitely be watching that again soon!), one hank of Takhi Cotton Classic in a mint-green, (for some washcloths), and some size 15 and 17 Brittany DPNs for future hat-making with chunky yarns (like the Misti Alpaca mentioned above - doh!). I also had Nancie sign two books I own which she authored -- Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques and Essential Book of Crochet Techniques.

Sunday's class was less like yarn-wrestling and more like fun. Nancie taught us Intarsia basics, and from her simple instructions I was able to create an intarsia swatch:

***

beginner chart (with lots of my hand-written notes) and swatch

***

intarsia swatch
***

messy back-side of intarsia swatch

***

If anyone cares, the yarns I used were Paton's Classic Merino in "Too Teal", "Peacock" and "Bottle Green". I really enjoyed this class and can see why people find this a fun technique. And I now feel less intimidated by charts, which is a major accomplishment, folks! TNK members Sherry, Sheddy and Sangeeta were also in my class, but we were all so busy knitting that I didn't get a chance to get their picture. I'm hoping they'll bring their swatches Tuesday night, so we can all brag together!

I didn't finish the swatch before class was over, but did so last night while watching my beloved 'Skins lose badly to the Cowboys. (Ouch!) One thing I learned -- it took me almost as long to weave in my ends as it did to knit the doggone thing in the first place! Something to keep in mind for future projects. I don't yet have an actual intarsia project in mind that I'd like to knit, but I will now keep my eyes open for one. I think I'd like to design a Redskins scarf with intarsia letters (gold letters on maroon background).

I'm loving this multi-color stuff! I think I'd like to take a Fair Isle class in the near future, and I think Unraveled is offering one this fall.

So, all-in-all, it was a fun and educational weekend for this knitter, and I definitely feel "wiser" for having been taught by Ms. Wiseman.... ;-)

***

Knitting DVDs

***
Okay, when both Amy Singer of Knitty and Clara Parkes of Knitter's Review give a set of knitting DVDs their collective four thumbs up, you sit up and take notice. It didn't take me but a split-second after reading the second positive review to decide to at least rent, if not purchase Lucy Neatby's Knitting Essentials. Alas, Netflix doesn't have them yet, and neither does Amazon.com, (preventing me from adding them to my Christmas wish list). So, moments ago, I just bought them outright from Webs.

Knitting Essentials, Volumes 1 and 2, by Lucy Neatby

I eagerly await their arrival and look forward to adding them to my knitting DVD library next to the my Elizabeth Zimmerman Knitting Workshop DVDs. Their quality is bound to be head-and-shoulders above the amateurish Art of Knitting I recently reviewed.

And I can't wait to order her Sock Techniques DVDs when they become available. Kudos to Lucy Neatby for advancing the realm of knitting instruction!

***

SoXcessful SoXperience 2006!

***

***WARNING: Lengthy post! (But look - text AND pictures! Wonders never cease!)***

-----------------------

Last weekend I attended a wonderful event called SoXperience 2006 up at Caroden Farm, in Stanardsville, VA, which I learned of by reading Liz's post on the subject. Having never met in person prior to the event, but since we both lived in the greater Richmond area, Liz & I decided to ride up together and share a hotel room, so we could each then earmark more spendin’ money for yarn, (priorities, people!). And since I have a bazillion hotel points, lodging was free. Gotta love that.

On the way to our Harrisonburg hotel Friday afternoon, we pulled off I-64 and stopped in Charlottesville to visit a LYS, It’s a Stitch. I did not buy any yarn, but did purchase a couple of cute knitting-related greeting cards, as well as a handy pattern booklet called “Classic Socks for the Family”, with basic patterns sized for men, women and children and for fingering, sport and worsted weight yarns.

I love the sign they had near their cash register:

After a Red Lobster dinner in C'ville we got back on 64W and found ourselves in a moment of serendipity! While driving over Afton Mountain, we saw a black bear sitting on the hillside – my first ever bear sighting! We were driving too fast and my reflexes too slow to get a picture, (especially with my broken camera), unfortunately, but he appeared to be young, maybe a teenager, and was just sitting there calmly, perhaps munching on blackberries. I'm guessing that bears in the area aren't all that unusual, because I did notice during our travels various signs for places with "bear" in the name. Pretty cool.

We had no trouble finding our hotel once in Harrisonburg, but it sure felt weird for me to be back in that town. I graduated from JMU in 1987 and have not really been back in town since my younger brother graduated from there in 1989. Lots of college memories flooded back as we drove by the campus, which has really expanded since I was a student. Our family likes to take credit for the success of that school -- five of the six of us graduated from there. And three of my siblings also married JMU alums. My oldest nephew is also considering going there, which would be what Oprah calls a "full-circle moment". Great state school on a great campus in a great town - can't say enough good things about attending there. But I digress.

Once settled into our hotel room Friday evening, Liz modeled her fabulous Pomatomus sock:

Does her leg look like a manakin's?... ;-)

and then I leaned on her sock expertise to fix the dropped stitches on my Lorna’s Laces Magic Loop sock while I attempted to untangle some of her yarn. (Sorry Liz – didn’t get very far on that!)

Saturday was a beautiful, breezy, partly-cloudy day and made for a beautiful drive from Harrisonburg over the Blue Ridge Mountains and through the Shenandoah National Forest to Caroden Farm. We arrived mid-morning, and since I didn't have a class until after lunch, I sat in the "loafing tent", enjoyed the weather and knit a little. But I was more fascinated in watching the woman sitting in front of me creating bobbin lace:







Isn't that amazing and beautiful? We got to talking, and I mentioned that my grandmother used to make tatted lace, and this woman then proceeded to bring out some of her tatting and gave me a demonstration. Way cool. And we then started talking about knitting lace, and her first words were, "but knitting lace is so HARD!" And I'm thinking to myself, I'd still prefer two sticks and one piece of working yarn to a hundred bobbins and threads ANY day!

A little before noon, we had a wonderful bonus to the weekend by the arrival of Wendy Johnson, venerable author of the famed blog and newly published book. Wendy and good friend L-B came to Caroden Farm for a signing of aforementioned book:

Heidi-ho, Knitter! Who is that mysterious stranger hiding behind Wendy's book?

None other than L-B! And look at that beautiful "Wendy Knits" banner L-B made for the book tour. Gorgeous! (ArtYarns SuperMerino, fyi).

If you thought L-B was Wendy's alter-ego or imaginary friend, well now you know she's actual flesh and blood! And also a sweet lady with mad knitting skillz. I got a chance to see her latest Socks That Rock club project. Pretty! And Wendy's purple & black sock was gorgeous, even if the yarn did stain her fingers! Anyway, I took advantage of Wendy's presence by buying her book and getting it signed:

I started to read it last Saturday night and have enjoyed what I've read thus far. I found out that I carry my working yarn in the same manner as Wendy, so I feel slightly less amateurish somehow.

After a yummy tuna salad on pita lunch Saturday, I took my first class of the weekend - "Beginner Baby Socks on Double-Pointed Needles", taught by shop-owner Caroline herself. The class was three hours, and I actually stayed a bit past that, just so I could get to a good stopping point before we left. I am so glad I took this class -- it was just the right amount of instruction for me to overcome my fear of both DPNs and sock knitting. Later that evening I finished my sock, and was so proud that I was able to graft the toe via kitchener's stitch ALL BY MYSELF, without once having to ask Liz a question. Yay me! I've posted this picture before, but for completeness sake, I'll post it here again:

Once completed, I immediately cast on for a second sock and got a few rounds of the cuff done before we went to sleep. This past week, as I was shaping the heel gusset on the second sock, I realized that on my first sock when shaping the gusset I forgot to knit a round of just plain knits between each of the decrease rounds, so my second sock has a much more "shapely" heel and is therefore not a match for the first. That's okay, because after I finished the second sock, I immediately cast on for a third, to match the second! That way, I can give the matching pair away and keep my first one as a souvenier of the weekend and a memento of my very first completed sock!

After leaving Caroden Farm Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed the beautiful drive back to Harrisonburg (approx. 40 minute away). Liz and I both decided that we'd love to live in the area, although for me, it would require a husband or a whole lotta money to lure me away from my hometown. (Slim chance of either happening, so looks like I'm staying put!) Once back in H'burg, we ate dinner at Appleby's and then stopped in the nearby Books-a-Million because I had a consuming urge to buy Debbie Stoller's latest Stitch 'n Bitch crochet book, aka The Happy Hooker. (I really want to learn how to crochet - Grandma's lessons when I was a kid just didn't stick.) While perusing their Needlecraft aisle, I also found a really cool embroidery kit, which I purchased because of recent inspiration from the WeeWonderfuls blog. (Grandma also embroidered, but never showed me how.)

Books I acquired last weekend.

Not in picture but also purchased at Caroden Farm is the Magic Loop booklet I've been meaning to buy for awhile, since I've been using that method on my Lorna's Laces sock.

Sunday was another pretty, cool and breezy day. Liz wasn't feeling well so we got a late start, but no matter -- our morning class was an easy and free one - learning the Turkish Cast-On for toe-up socks. They'd allotted two hours for this class, when in fact it really only required 5 minutes to learn that cast-on via DPNs and one long circular (Magic Loop). And so we had extra time to practice, chat with other knitters, eat lunch, shop, and play with the farm kittens, "Click" and "Clack". Also during lunch, shop-owner Caroline's husband Dan gave us all a treat by bringing a newborn lamb to our tent. As they explained, apparently one of their rams can fly, because they thought they were all done with lambing for the year and had separated the ewes and rams. One smart fella got through the fence somehow and knocked up a young ewe who wasn't slated for breeding this year. Caroline and Dan named the newborn "SoX", in honor of the weekend's events.

Dan, SoX and grandson Nate. View more SoX pictures here.

One of the other classes being offered that weekend was on Mitered Socks. That was a little too advanced for my skill level, but I did get to see some examples knitted by instructor Melissa, Caroline's daughter:

Completed sock knit and modeled by Melissa

Sock-in-progress, knit with Koigu KPPM -- isn't it gorgeous? Reminds me of tapestry fabric.

After lunch Sunday, we took our last class of the weekend, entitled "Too Kool" - a Kool-Aid yarn dyeing class. That was a lot of fun but very messy! Caroline's poor microwave bit the dust so she had to carry our yarn back and forth from the tent to the house. They were very generous with supplies -- each of us received two mini skeins, a ball and a large skein to dye. I decided to dye one of my mini-skeins with stripes of blue and green Kool-Aid, and the other mini-skein with stripes of blue and green food coloring. See if you can tell the difference:

Drying in the sun on left - food coloring; right - Kool-Aid

Skeined, top - food coloring; bottom - Kool-Aid

As you can see, the colors were fairly similar, although I think the food coloring is more brilliantly saturated, and I'd probably use that again in the future.

I also dyed my ball of yarn by dipping one end in a blue cup (at that stage in the day it was a mixture of Kool-Aid and food coloring), and the other end in a green cup:

This should knit up as a cool striped something

After all the blue and green, I was ready to try other colors for the big skein, but was at a loss as to what colors to use. I finally decided to try for red and purple stripes, but somehow it turned into orange with just some purpley ends. I thought it was a total loss, but it came out of the microwave looking not half bad. Here it is skeined up:

Still a little tangled - this'll be fun to wind into a ball!

At some point I want to knit a swatch of all of these to see how they look knitted up. I have decided that, as fun as this class was, I think I would rather leave the yarn dyeing to the professionals. I would do it again as a fun event with kids or friends, but have no desire to do it on a regular basis at home, for myself. Too messy.

We left Caroden Farm shortly after the class finished, and headed back home by way of Charlottesville, where we met Krista, another new knit-blogger friend. Thanks to Krista's lead, we were able to squeeze in a visit to The Needle Lady, which is in a renovated courtyard-type area of downtown C'ville. Having bought much yarn at Caroden, I refrained from buying more, but was sorely tempted by the ArtYarns SuperMerino they had in a variegated turquoise colorway that you just know strikes right to my core. I've fallen in love with this yarn, after having seen Liz' clapotis and L-B's banner, both made with it. I've since found that yarn cheaper on kpixie, although it's sold out in my colorway, unfortunately. No hurry. I have enough yarn. More than enough. Case in point, my yarn purchases from the weekend:

Cotton sale yarns from Caroden's dollar bin. Score! All for dishcloths, probably.

My new sock yarn stash. Top: Cascade Fixation, Lorna's Laces, Trekking XXL; Bottom: Koigu KPPM

The turquoise Cascade Fixation will be for socks for me, eventually - being hot-natured, I'm not much into wool socks, (or wool anything), so am wanting to try cotton. The Lorna's Laces came from Krista -- she swapped me that yarn for the Socks That Rock that I picked up for her at Maryland Sheep & Wool. Liz found that particular colorway of Trekking XXL in the Caroden shop and led me right to it. Thanks, Liz! And that Koigu purchase was a direct result of seeing Melissa's mitered sock knit with it. I now understand why people swoon and fight over that yarn.

After we left the Needle Lady the three of us ate at a fabulous nearby restaurant called The Downtown Grille. Yum and yummer. After dinner Liz & I were back on the road to Richmond, where she dropped me home.

I got an email last week from Caroline at Caroden, asking for feedback from the weekend. My reply was quite lengthy and all positive. In it I summarized why I felt the weekend was a complete success for me:

1) The beautiful location
2) The lovely weather (out of their control, but it did help!)
3) The animals - especially getting to meet little Soxie, but also having Click and Clack around
4) The warmth and graciousness of Caroline, her family and her staff
5) Their lovely yarn shop, and especially all of the sock yarn, (Richmond has 5 yarn stores and none have as extensive a sock yarn selection)
6) The added bonus of having Wendy there signing books
7) The outrageously inexpensive tuition (don't change that!)
8) The great lunches provided
9) Meeting and chatting with the other knitters there
10) Learning to knit socks on DPNs!!!
11) Learning a great new cast-on
12) Getting a chance to try Kool-Aid yarn dyeing

For all of those reasons, I would highly recommend this weekend to anyone, and will surely try my best to attend it again next year. It was wonderful.

In her email, Caroline also gave an update on SoX the lamb: "Little Soxie is doing fine and racing around the fields now. He weighed in at 13 pounds the day after he was born. What fun!"

Indeed!

SoXperience pictures

SoX

Blogger continues to be problematic and is losing my posts at least 50% of the time, as well as refusing to upload pictures at least 50% of the time. They're really living up to their "you get what you paid for" unofficial corporate slogan. However my propensity for being cheap thrifty keeps me from looking elsewhere, or paying to blog, so instead I utilize work-arounds.

Today's work-around: Flickr. I've now uploaded all of last weekend's photos to Flickr and created a photo set and a badge which currently resides in my sidebar. The sidebar badge may get updated/modified/moved or removed at a later date, as I experience new fiber events. But I'll leave my photo set out on Flickr indefinitely. So, if interested, I'd love for you to stop by and take a gander at the SoXperience 2006 photos. I especially like the "View as Slideshow" option.

I'd still like to write a narrative post about last weekend, and I had hoped to include pictures because I'm a firm believer in the old adage, ("a picture is worth a thousand words"), but perhaps I'll just write a photo-free post tomorrow, and avoid the frustration. I do hate to make readers leave my blog to view photos, but, what can ya do?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

SoX!

***

A couple of finished objects from this weekend:

***

"Sox", born at Caroden Farm Saturday night, and named in honor of the weekend's events

***

***

My very first finished sock, also born and completed on Saturday. I feel like I just cured cancer!

***

***

More to follow later on the weekend's events. Blogger has been quite temperamental today, so I'll save the lengthy, picture-heavy post for sometime in the near future. Stay tuned!

***

See One, Do One, Teach One...

***

...or, How a Knitter is Born....

Being new-ish to knitting, I still have much to do and learn in order to advance beyond the beginners category of [rectangles]. But recently I've had the distinct pleasure of watching (and perhaps helping a little bit, and maybe even learning something myself) as another new knitter is born and develops.

If you may recall, I gave my sister-in-law, (also named Mary), a scarf for her November birthday. She seemed to really like it, which is all any knitter, especially a new one, can ask for.

On Christmas Day, I went over to their house for a few hours and brought some knitting with me. It was then that Mary told me about a prayer shawl ministry being held at her church. I've gone once and plan to go again this Saturday. Mary's attended several of their meetings, the first at which they taught her to cast-on and knit, and I believe the knitting bug has firmly taken hold of her.

Case in point:

* She's been to the KnittingHelp website
* She's visited a LYS
* Twice now she's purchased yarn at a local craft store
* She has a small supply of yarn not yet ear-marked for a project; (I gleefully educated her that this is known as a "stash") ;-)
* She's finished a project and has now started two more

(This has both surprised and delighted me, because I didn't know she was even interested. Inside, I'm beside myself with glee.)

Twice this past week I've been at their house to knit and watch the Winter Olympics on their shiny new flat screen tv:

(look how sharply HDTV photographs)

which has been a lot of fun for me.

Even more fun, I've had the opportunity to teach Mary a few more knitterly things. On Saturday she learned how to bind off, to weave in ends, to purl, and got a refresher course in casting-on. Last night I exposed her to the long-tail cast-on, gave another refresher on purling and how to read knits and purl stitches on the needle, and also showed her the basketweave pattern, which was an absolute kick for me, since I'd not done that myself before. (Laurie would be so proud.)

What's that old saying, "see one, do one, teach one"? I just love observing and/or being a part of the process as a new addict knitter is born.

Whoo-hoo! One more for our side!

Now I just need to remember to take pictures of her knitting -- after all, she may want to blog about it someday! ;-)

***

Continental vs. Combination

***

I'm on Got Yarn's mailing list, and received an email last night about some classes they're having in March. Nancie Wiseman will be here in town, teaching several workshops on March 4th & 5th.

I've signed up for her class on Continental Knitting -- I'm eager to see if I can master that and increase my speed.

***

I've also been reading Annie Modesitt's book on Combination (Combined) Knitting, which is very interesting. I'm not sure that method is for me, though. It's different enough from what 95% of knitters do and from how 99% of patterns are written that, me being easily confused, I'd most likely make a royal mess of things if I attempted it.

If she were ever to come to town I'd surely take her class, though, because there's nothing like learning from an expert.

***