'S'up?"

Lot's 'o stuff...

The Class...

Today is the first class of the second session.  5 of my original 9 students are returning to take it up a notch from their simple garter stitch, self designed projects into the world of stockinette and patterns. In preparation for this I've been swatching and doodling and surfing around on line costing out needles and yarn. I will also have a new student who doesn't know how to knit so that adds another level of complexity. I have $15.00 per student for supplies and each child will need new needles. It isn't much to work with.

So the first project will take advantage of the remaining yarn from the first session which is largely red and pinks. I've designed a heart sachet project that will be all shaping all the time, a bit of assembly, decorating with embroidery and then felting. After the felting we'll block them to shape. 'Amazing how many techniques you can work into one small project!

I incorporated a little cleavage into my heart - it will add some dimension and minimize any other puckering they end up with as they kitchener around all those curves.

I'm planning three weeks for this with everyone working together through class - maybe into the fourth.  Beyond that, I'm not sure where we'll head.,

 Working with cotton might be interesting - it'll really show up the quality of their tension and fresh from a felting project, highlight just how sticky wool can be compared to another type of fiber.

Future projects...
I mentioned in Monday's post I'd spread out my stash to see what was there. I've got yarn for...

4 pairs socks

A "Backyard Leaves" Scarf

A white mohair wrap

several cotton bags

I also have a quantity of worsted. My colour work ambitions feel like they're heading towards finer gauge so I'm thinking about using up the worsted but in combinations that don't remind me of their origins in other FO's.  so I started by grouping things by colour. Yellow....makes me think about a small afghan like Lion Brand Artful Elegance.

And this grouping makes me think of a steeked cardigan...

This bunch is saying yoke neck pullover...

The exercise has me thinking it might be fun to put off new yarn purchases until all of it is gone. Its a nice variety of projects and yarns. It could keep me amused for months!


Sweater WIP...

And speaking of amusing - the Minimalist Cardigan isn't.

Knitting Continental is unpleasant because unlike my English technique its not automatic. It is getting faster though and my tension is improving in terms of consistency. I've completed the back and one side of the front and I'm a couple of inches into the second front section.

I worked at spring cleaning bedrooms and laundering bedding yesterday - flipping and vacuuming mattresses, wiping down walls, woodwork and furniture and cleaning out the closets and dressers. (Other than me, everyone in the family is very allergic to dust - for two of them it triggers asthma for the other it prompts violent and unrelenting sneezes so this kind of cleaning a couple of times a year is really important and I'm the only one who can do it while still breathing.) I used my left hand as much as possible and taking about 4 breaks through the day to ice my elbow. I did knit, wearing my brace for a couple of hours in the evening. In the end I slept better last night than I have in several nights previous. What a relief!

My projects aren't the only ones in the hopper around here though.  Number One Son, like his mother, always needs a project and his current one is to build a wake surf board...

Its a reinforced plywood base, with the top now covered in four cans of foam insulation. The wood was curved at both ends by hauling pot after pot of boiling water out to the driveway to douse and soften the board then suspended at either end and weighted down in the middle. (All this prior to applying the foam of course.) The shot below kind of shows the curve along the lower edge. He shaved and sanded the foam covered surface down smooth and plans to add fins to the bottom and then fiberglass the whole thing.

His clean up of the garage even met with his father's approval which is hard to believe given the mess he made!

So that's what's up around here!

Thanks for dropping by!

The Class

As promised here are a few pics of the goings on in the little knitting class I'm working with Wednesday afternoons. I couldn't get around to snapping a photo of everyone's work but I'll be sure to get a shot next week of anyone who isn't represented here today.

This is the beginnings of a set of hand warmers...

(She already finished and cast off a striped piece that was about 7" long she reports she is using for a "Doll Blanket" (If the knitters in my class are any indication Ravelry might well consider a new category for Doll Blanket Patterns - they're all the rage with the young knitting crowd!)

I love this red and white version...look how nice and even her tension is already! (That waviness is because she's stretching it out in the photo.) 

This little grade two student is at the end of casting off...at my suggestion her friend showed her how to do it.  (I explained that one way to learn is by doing, another is by teaching someone else to do it.)  The friend was very proud to be able to demonstrate how it was done for a couple of stitches but then it was back in the hands of the original knitter to take it the rest of the way.  Between the two of them they got the job done!                            

Here's another Doll Blanket in the works...I love the colours on this one! 

                                          

This grade 5 student is now onto her second project - that's about 30 minutes of her knitting output you see there.  Her tension is beautiful and here product error free.

Here's the work the "Casting Off" Teacher had done on her second piece - again, check out how even her garter stitch has become. This child is 7 years old.

This quiet knitter has been busily working away each week, needing nothing from me in the way of help.  I've chatted with her about her colour choices and how she is enjoying the process and how much she knits at home but I haven't examined her knitting.  I want the kids to develop their own eye for accuracy and mistakes.  I also don't want to flag something as "wrong" if they are comfortable with what they're producing. Yesterday, however, this child asked me for help because her work kept falling off the needles.  When I went to see what the problem was I was stunned to see she had multplied the number of stitches she was working to the point of running out of needle room!

                       

It turns out from the original 30 stitches she started with, she now had over 100! Here it is released from the needle...

                                    

To save her work (aren't the colours fabulous?!) I brought it home and got the number of stitches back down to 30 but without ripping all the way back. Instead I made a few corrections and then knit a couple of rows with some drastic decreases. She's keen to have her knitting back before the weekend so I'm going to return it to the school this afternoon. I'll be interested to see next week what she thinks of how it looks now and how she has proceeded in the meantime.

Once I saw her compounded stitch count error I asked everyone to count their stitches and check their number against their pattern to see if they had the right number and it turns out only a couple still had the quantity with which they started - nothing more than a couple of stitches in any one case though.

So I launched into a lesson on decreasing and spacing out decreases across a row. "Knit two together" was demonstrated and then quickly picked up. They did the rest of their necessary decreases themselves and soon they were back on track and knitting happily away.

After last week's class there was too much lingering (according to the janitorial staff) so I had to rush everyone to be ready to walk out the door the minute our hour together ended.  This really ate into our knitting time  forcing everyone to stop before they were either ready or willing.

But then isn't that always the way with knitting?!

Thanks for dropping in today! (To my blog and (kind of) to my class as well. I wish you could all see them in real life, clicking away together - its absolutely wonderful to watch! )

The Class

I didn't get to posting about my little group of new knitters last week! And that's what they are now - bona fide knitters. The progress is visible, their classic knitter's enthusiasm for their yarn, its colour, texture and performance unmistakable.

At one point last week, after I'd remedied issues and/or gushed over each child's work I stood back and noticed the room was silent, save the soft little sounds of plastic needles. Silent! Two weeks after our first session and only at the start of our third class these children were sitting together silently knitting! Then one little girl started to sing a song from the musical "Annie" (the school is putting on a performance of the play this year.) Spontaneously, all the others joined in. None of them looked up or stopped what they were doing.  They just all sang sweetly together.  When the last sustained note wafted away the single boy in the class pointed out "that was out of tune!"

Maybe they agreed with his observation, maybe they were all just too engrossed with their work but no one reacted, knitting continued (his included). It was wonderful to watch!

During the first class I had them record their ideas on a pattern sheet and I'm holding them to it, or, if they insist they want to change, getting them to document the changes.  This keeps any one child from  getting caught up doing whatever their neighbour or friend is doing. Its also making them really invested in their own work.  I'm often quoting EZ, encouraging them to be the boss of their own knitting. They seem to find this quite empowering and its bearing great fruit in terms of motivation.

I'm also encouraging them to help each other both during class and between classes.  This too is helping to keep things moving forward for everyone.

The big basket full of a rainbow of worsted is, as I'd hoped a much coveted place to be - getting more yarn, picking new colours, now making their own little balls as I'm showing them to do.

Each week I wear something I've knit and each week they ask whether I knit it and how many stitches are in it and how long it took me to make. It shows they're recognizing the cumulative effect of sequentially making multiple stitches and rows. They are seeing it takes time but yields results. Fantastic!

I also take some knitting along for them to handle and examine.

That garter stitch cowl and fingerless mitts I posted a peek at last week prompted some discussion.

Having seen mine, one child is now making a pair for her own tiny hands. 

Despite interest in the shaping of the cowl it seems to be more than any of them want to undertake knitting or wearing! (I beg to differ on that point! ;) )

 

Tomorrow's class may include a new student which will bring us to full capacity of 10 children. If she joins it will be interesting to see how she works her way into the activity and the group. 

Its also my hope tomorrow to take a picture of their work and invite them to come and see it here on the blog. If you happen to drop by and see that post, (probably Thursday) it would be great if you'd comment - I bet, like any knitter, they'd love to hear what you think of their work!

I sure always do!

Thanks for dropping by today!

Added Wednesday February 3......no photos this week - I forgot to load the memory card in my camera before I left for class...next week for sure!

The Class

Well class #1 went very well.  At Barbara's suggestion I cast on 30 stitches ahead of time on each set of needles so we were able to devote the most time possible to getting the knit stitch executed and it worked! 9 children in the class (3, 7 year olds, 3, 9 year olds and 3, 10 year olds) managed to knit a few stitches, by themselves. In a fascinating demonstration of how different people learn differently, two children's hands seemed to "get it" despite the whole thing remaining an apparent mystery to their brains. But the majority had that wonderful moment of...

 "aha!"

 expressed with little exclamations of ...

   "oh! I see!"

"I did it!"

and the most precious...

"I can help someone else for you because I know how to do it now!"

Surprising to me was that they were all very excited at the prospect of  being able to keep the needles - that they were, in fact, their own and that they were real needles.

My favourite part of the whole thing though was the collective sound of them catching their breath as I unveiled the rainbow of beautiful worsted.

When I was asked to teach this class I insisted that I would only do it if we could use good quality wool yarn. If the resulting materials fee was too much then we would have to accept that the community wasn't sufficiently interested to support offering a class. The response of the children confirmed the validity of that decision.

How seriously great is that?

I hope you have a seriously great weekend! I hope to get some FO shots of the High School Mitts with Number One Son and the Darling Daughter Scarf on the DD herself. The baby knit I've jammed into the queue should also see completion.

If you are in North Toronto here's a head's up - the spring issue of Debbie Bliss Knits is in at Passionknit.  apparently they're the first retailer in Canada to get it!

As always...thanks for dropping by today!