Looking for the unknown.

I've enjoyed all the classes I have taken so far, the lace class, the combined knitting class, the fair Isle class and so on, and in each I learned what I was meant to learn, but often, there has been some special magic. Sometimes, it wasn't what I was supposed to learn that changed me. It was the unintended thing that has changed me more.

I took a class and learned that decreases lean the direction the tips of your knitting needles are pointing as you knit the stitch. That made life a whole lot simpler, in my topsy turvy, I'm not doing what you are doing to get the same thing done, world. Just these small words, the context the instructor said them in, changed how I look at all increases and decreases.

I took a class and learned that when doing colour work, purl with the hand I would commonly purl with and knit with the uncommon hand. It wasn't something that we were directed to do, just something small that I would not have thought of on my own. Or at least not until many, many tears had been shed.

I listened to an instructor teaching how to do an afterthought heel (I already knew the technique) but one small sentence changed everything about how I look at picking up stitches.

Sally Melville is here and I expect to to learn a whole lot about knitting from her. I'm taking workshops that ought to help me adjust patterns and make things fit me, rather than some 'normal' body out there (Just who is that 'Normal' everyone keeps sizing things for anyway? I want to meet her and talk to her about what she is doing to the rest of us.)

The magic stuff takes a little longer. Time plus working with the new skills you learned make the unintended magic become clear. When it happens, it is like getting the class all over again. You take out all the bits and words and things you learned upfront, refining and refocusing them and make everything, every word come alive in just a little different way.

In some ways, today is exactly like every other day. It is unknown, but, like most days, I have a rough outline of the form of my day. Class at 9:00, lunch, class at 1:00 (ish). But because today isn't like every other day, I'm going to keep my ears, eyes and hands open for whatever the day brings. Who knows when and where magic will strike.

I'm not sure what is going on this morning with blogger. Forgive the formatting, its the program, not the writer. Reeeeeeally. (Ok, Fixed. Maybe)