And to Think...They Are Going To Pay Me For This!

After much discussion and a few false starts...they have asked me to do a teen knitting program at the library. The tricky bit was that, for the first time, we are asking the teens to bring their own supplies. Normally, when doing crafts, we provide the materials...however, in the current economy...well, there have been budget cuts. I am very excited about the program, but a little apprehensive. Though I have taught a lot of people how to knit, including teaching classes to my residents in the dorm, this is the first "official" class that I have given for strangers. (It is a lot easier to teach people I know, or to teach one on one. Fingers Crossed!)

The teens will be making their own scarves. I am going to just do a simple 4" garter stitch scarf. They will cast on however many stitches that the ball band suggests for gauge. I will show them/help them cast on, and then set them free. Since it is a one time 2 hour workshop, there is NO WAY that they will finish in the time allotted. This is where it gets cool.

I have filmed myself casting on, knitting, and casting off as three separate videos. I am uploading these to youTube (and here), and will then put the URLs on the instruction sheet. The young adult librarian will also link to them from the library's teen and mySpace pages. Who said knitters couldn't be tech-savvy?

Taking Orders

I had a party a little over a week ago after church on Sunday night. All of the young people, and some not as young people, came over to play games and eat food. It was a holiday weekend, so none of the kids had school the next day.

As we were all sitting around on the sectional and couches chatting, I pulled out my always-near-to-hand current knitting project. (If I remember correctly it was the 2 row Noro Stripe Scarf.) All of a sudden one of the guys, BigOne, piped up that if I wanted I could make him a scarf.

"Oh really?"
"Yeah. I'll even let you make me an orange one!"
"Construction Cone orange?"
"Yep."
"And you'll wear this?"
"Yep."

The next thing I knew requests were flying at me from all of the guys in the room. It seems that, while I have been very good about giving the gals birthday handknits, the guys were feeling neglected. I ended up grabbing a small legal pad and writing down names and projects on a handy little list. By the time I got through everyone, BigOne had changed his choice from an orange scarf to a more manly ski cap. In fact, most of the requests were for ski caps in VERY blah colors: black, blue, grey, etc. At least ski caps are fast!

Anyone else have an order?

Rock Your Socks Off Storytime

I did a pajama time family story hour last night at one of the other library branches. I got to pick any theme I wanted, so I chose...SOCKS!!!

It was a LOT of fun. The program included:

New Socks by Bob Shea

Smitten by David Gordon

Where's My Sock by Joyce Dunbar

"Black Socks" (One of my favorite Girl Scout songs.)

An insanely long time dancing around like crazy people to "At the Hop"

And a flannel board that I did for a poem about socks that I found online.

I wore my crazy Sesame Street Socks and let all of the kids take their shoes off.

We even played a game where they had to put things in order from sheep to sock:

A stuffed sheep

Wool Roving

A Skein of Yarn

A partially knitted sock still on the needles

A finished sock

Some moms nearly had apoplectic fits as their children messed with the needles of the sock-in-progress. I quickly reassured them that it had been knit for demo only, and was not an actual project I was working on. (How crazy are they to think that I would actually let 3 year olds unravel an actual sock sock? Silly non-knitters!)

Happy New Year!

I rang in the New Year with all my friends from church. We threw a big party at the house. (And by "we," I really mean "they." With "they" being my foster family.)

I spent the evening doing all the things I love the most:
-Laughing and playing games with my friends. (We played Risk.)
-Getting hugs from the small folk.
-Snacking
-Knitting.

Yes, that is correct. It is quite possible to play Risk while working on a 2 row striped Noro scarf.

Was I mocked? Yes. Did I care? No.

Two last things:

1. It is astonishing to note how quickly people can become acclimated to your knitting in their presence. The guys: Broseph, Matador, and JoNo didn't even blink when I pulled out my needles.

2. Ark crawled into my lap part way through the evening and asked me if I was knitting a sock. Now, I realize that a 16 inch length of striped Noro scarf looks NOTHING like a sock...but every time I babysit Ark and his little brother Fish I bring a sock to work on. (They love watching me try it on, and giggle when my toes peep out the ends.) So, in Ark's little 4 year old mind needles and yarn=socks in progress...no matter what the project looks like!