Tuesday 6 July 2010

Note to self:

Knitting with Bette was great. Knitting with Liz Christine was better.

Note to self:  Every once in a while, remember to take a class. Taking a class not only teaches you good new skills, but is good for the brain.  Stretching your brain is just like stretching your body.  Keeps it healthy.



Note to self:  Pay attention when the instructor tells you which yarn to use even when you feel pretty confident that you could do it in any yarn.  Forget what you like.  Knit what she says.

I started with Rowan Scottish Tweed 4 ply.  I thought if it looked awful, I could felt it all.  And it was a yarn I had not used yet.  Bad choice.  Far too clingy for a newbie like me.  One of the others in class was using it too, but she has knit without any significant breaks, since she was a very small child.  She managed but it was still a challenge.  I tried and restarted 3 times.  (I have the two colour tubular cast on down pat).  It just wasn't going to do.

Here I sat with all sorts of yarn at home that would have been fine, with nothing appropriate to knit for the class.  Right next to where I was sitting, literally, right next to me, was a shelf full of a yarn from the long gone Needful Yarns, Cucciolio.  

I grabbed a couple of balls of the shelf and began my sample. 

It's far from perfect, but it is close to respectable.  The edges are more or less closed as they ought to be.  There are no strands carried on the wrong side.  I have a long way to go, but I'm close to        
figuring out matching gauge on both sides, and I am about to start some colour work.  

It was interesting watching each of the students think about how we were going to use the technique as we came to understand the basics of how to use it.  Some fantastic stuff is about to happen. I am the tame one in the group.  I'm planning on using the technique for some afghans that I am doing for fall.  


Note to self:  Consider buying every last ball of rescue yarn off shelf.  Good stuff.  Very good stuff.  


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