I Can Explain

I can explain what happened..and when I do it will make all kinds of sense, but before I do I want to share the teaching experience:

First, let say I am not one of those who thinks everyone should knit. In fact, I do not think everyone should knit because then there would be no one to buy what I knit. So I think some of us should knit and the others should buy what those who knit make.

However, if someone thinks they have the knitting bug, I believe it is my duty to encourage and even teach them how to put stick to string and make a series of loops that will eventually look like a scarf or whatever the pattern says those loops should look like.

Chantal is a new member of StitchCraft and she is learning how to knit. And she actually has the technique down and then she does the thing that is the biggest problem for a new knitter:
she thinks too much about it. She will actually place the right hand needle in the loop on the left needle, wrap the yarn around, get the right hand needle half way through the loop and then stop herself because she thinks it's wrong. And she won't believe me when I tell her it's right. If I'm watching her, she does it perfectly, when I turn around, she creates a problem for herself by thinking about it too much.

She's completely adorable.

By the end of today's session, I think we are on the way for her just relaxing into it. I have found that new knitters who have trouble getting into the flow have that problem because they somehow feel the need to control the process. They want so badly for there to be more to it than there is. Really.

1. Place stick in loop.
2. Wrap yarn around right stick.
3. Move right stick from the back to the front, catching yarn wrapped around stick to form new loop.
4. Move new loop from left stick to right stick, dropping old loop off left stick.

That's all there is to the fire.

While we were having our lesson I was thinking back to the days when I was learning how to knit in class at school. I tried to remember if I had a hard time with it. As I recall, I didn't catch on totally but I got it eventually. I don't remember where I was having the problem but I knew I was able to come home and do it - I think one of my sisters knew how to knit and also showed me a little - that part is blurry.

I am determined Chantal will learn how to knit because she wants to learn and I will show her. But more important, I want her to rely on her own approval so she can enjoy herself when she's by herself and she doesn't need someone to watch her and so she doesn't get uptight in her own company. There's certainly things to think about in knitting, but it's a lot easier when you let the knitting process carry you when it can. It's relaxing when you allow it to have its own way. Then you work with it and it carries you off to the good place where knitters go. I want her to get there on her own ticket. The good news is that she's a good sport and determined. She'll get there.

OK, let me explain how come I came home with 20 skeins of yarn:

Someone mentioned they needed a certain size circular needle.
I mentioned Chix With Stix has needles in the back of the store for a smaller price than the ones they sell in the front of the store.
We are about five minutes from Chix with Stix
While we are still knitting the woman who for the past two years has purchased my big la de da afghans at the Holiday store walks in and asks me if I have her afghan already done this year.
I confess to her that I was thinking about her the other day because I do not have a big la de da afghan, I made it and gave it to my nephew and his wife. But since the sale is in December, there is still time to make one. She says the people she has given those afghans to really appreciate them, especially her very crafty mother who said she can tell love and effort has gone into them.

(Sniff, sniff, smile) Thank you, thank you so much. I make the promise to begin work on big la de da afghan.

You're starting to come on board, right?

We travel to Chix With Stix, we go to the back to look at needles when Melissa points out the clearance section in the store.

I go over and see Ella Rae Amity Yarn (75% acrylic 25% wool - 200 yards to the skein.) There are loads of colors - beautiful colors. Colors I like marked at $5 per skein. Then April points to the sign that says it's 40% off. I ask the woman at the store 40% off the $5 price?

Yes, she says.
I ain't no mathematician but that sure sounds like $3 for the solids and $3.30 for the variegated.
La de da, says I. Wait. La de da yarn. La de da afghan.

Now, aren't you asking how come I came home with just the 20? It would have been more but I didn't like the other colors and I bought them out of all the colors I did like.
Doesn't it make sense to you?

I called Mr. Honey from the car - forgiveness is sometimes preferable over permission. I explained it to him and you know what he said:

OK.

Ha.


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