Changing a Design
I am working on my prototype sock which is hopefully to be published. I had this great idea for the rib/top of the cuff, and I was able to do it beautifully the first time. However, after doing it the second time I can see that explaining this in black and white text will be a challenge I’m not excited to try.

I’m ripping back a few rows and I’ll see if I can figure out a way to accomplish a similar look with simpler instructions. I am enjoying the colors (turquoise and purple, are you surprised?) and it’s always fun to be at the beginning of a new creation. The deadline is really tight, though… so tomorrow when I thought I might be dyeing wool, will now be spent working out this pattern instead. Darn! I get to knit tomorrow and not feel guilty about it!!! Drat. What a rough life I lead!!!

Knitting Kids
Foster Center continues to obsess my thoughts. I was there today for CityKidz Knit! and then for Habibi Dancers. The kids were wonderful today, I had only three of them but it’s actually good to have small groups sometimes. That gives me more time to work with kids who have “hiccups” in their knitting.

One girl came for the first time since summer. It was great to have her back. It took some time for her to realize how long it was going to take to make a blanket for her beanie toy, but somehow she stuck it out and took the knitting home so she could make progress on it before next meeting. I was worried she’d give it up when she realized how slow the process was. My answer is always the same: It’s OK if you don’t love knitting the way I do… it does take time, so you have to enjoy the process. If you don’t love making one loop at a time, you may not enjoy knitting, but it’s always good that you tried something new. She stayed.

My youngest knitter, who turned six a week or two ago, loves making stitches but gets distracted easily. She makes stitches well when I say our poem to her, to guide the stitches… but after a while she says she can do it without me. She can, if there are no distractions, but she gets stuck if something else takes her attention. She just loves me, comes in and gives me hugs without any prompting, and sometimes sort of follows me around. She clearly wants to be near me even when knitting takes too much energy.

I sometimes let her draw for a while after she’s taken a turn at knitting, so she will be able to stay with us and have something to focus on. Today she drew a picture that said “I love knitting,” with a picture of me and a picture of her. It made my day!

Foster Volunteers
I have at least three volunteers for Friday’s open house. Luann and Jean, who both helped me every week for 8 weeks this summer, are coming. Also, Jane who is our guild President, has also said she would come. Thank you so much, ladies! Even more folks would be merrier, but three is wonderful!

I’m getting excited about the open house. I love my workplace, it is a very good-karma place to be. Showing it off will be a joy.

Off to knit!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2003 at 11:56 pmand is filed under Knitting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.