Thursday, August 03, 2006

Ambush Knitting



Last December a friend came over to learn to knit. There were a few problems, one: Not only am I left handed but I knit weird to boot. At the time I didn't know that either (well, I did know I'm left handed *wink* but was unaware of my strange knitting styles). two: She was going to try knitting a scarf on Size Enormous needles (maybe 15's?). Those are awkward enough as it is, but for a beginner, UGH! I had never tried them myself so I didn't know how hard they would be to use (I've never used anything larger than 10.5).

So long story short, she was frustrated, I was frustrated. She gave up and swore off knitting. I was so sad.

Fast forward to yesterday ... we don't get together often lots of kids, lots of activities, just life. So we were talking and I invited her and her kids over to play today. This morning before she got here I ran to the craft store and picked up some size 7 bamboos and a ball of cotton. My local craft store is so cool and always offers a 40% coupon. I love that place!

Anyway, so she got here with her kids and I told her I wanted to try teaching her to knit just one more time. I showed her the needles (bamboo are so much nicer to use than metal!) and yarn plus the very simple dish cloth pattern I printed off of The Dish Cloth Boutique. She agreed to give it another shot. Yay!

The knitting went pretty well. I even pulled out the very first item (a dish cloth of the same pattern) that I had ever knitted (five years ago). That is it up at the top. As you can tell, it wasn't and still isn't beautiful. The yarn has long faded, it used to be pink and white (apparently I'm not very good at laundry). There are some missed YO's and at least one dropped stitch in the middle (not to mention the tension issues!), but you know, it's functional. And it doesn't matter that it isn't lovely. I told her in five years she may just pull out her dish cloth to show someone she is teaching to knit. :)

Today I had time to knit another dish cloth. I'm knitting some to give
away (like at church and such) as Christmas gifts this year. "Washing you a Merry Christmas" or "We wash you a Merry Christmas". ha.