Another Episode of Cuteness!

I went to Preach and Psych's house for a bible study last Monday.

Before class started, I was sitting on the floor knitting a coffee cup cozy.

Angel walked in, and asked if she could help. She wanted to knit, too.

Angel is only three years old. Barely three, in fact. Three years and 17 days.

Even I think that is a wee bit young to be entrusted with sharp pointy objects.

Still, who was I to crush her little creative instincts?

I invited her to sit in my lap and "help" me.

JoNo was there, and took this video for me, and texted it to my iPhone. I would have posted it sooner, but it took me this long to figure out how to get it off the phone and onto the computer...



The cutest 14 seconds ever! (She actually "helped" for quite a while.)

Not Gonna Happen

I am being taken down by technology.

I am house sitting this week for the wonderful folk that I lived with all of last year.

They have cable.
They have guitar hero.
They have a Wii Fit.
They have wireless internet.

Now, they had all of these things while I lived with them, and I was still able to get plenty of knitting done. However, having gone without them for 3 months, I am in a state of techno-deprivation. I can't seem to put down the remote/controller/laptop/fake Gibson and pick up a pair of needles.

So, although I brought Les Tuileries and a few small projects with me, I have the distinct feeling that I am going to accomplish absolutely nothing over the next several days...

Swamped

I had 27 people show up to the knitting program at the library Wednesday night.

Let me repeat that:

27 PEOPLE

And not just 27 knitters to sit around and chat and knit. No.

I had 27 brand spanking new beginners who could barely tell the needles from the yarn!

This was unexpected.

27 knitters...and me. (And a lovely teen volunteer who happened to know how to knit and was a good sport about helping me at the last minute...I totally owe her a coffee cup cozy!)

We knew there was going to be a big turn out based on the PR and the amount of response we had been getting. (And the number of supply sheets I had to print out!) Yet, I did not freak out. I did not have a panic attack...

Until the power point projector did not recognize that my laptop was connected to it even though clearly it was...I thought it might be the type of cable I was using, so I rushed home (mercifully without getting a ticket for breaking the sound barrier) and grabbed every single connector that I owned. I got back 10 minutes before I was supposed to start. It didn't matter. Nothing worked.

That's ok. I took a deep breath and decided to pretend that I don't have a diagnosed stress disorder for which I have been medicated in the past. I pasted a smile on my face, pulled out my wonking huge demonstration needles, and went to work.

By the end of the evening, we had all made great progress...and everyone was knitting:



(The real shame is that I spent 5-6 hours working on that power point presentation...I even had NorCalGal email me a photo of her first dishcloth to include in it...that slide show was a thing of beauty I assure you! I am tempted to go ahead and post it here in the next week or so...I would just need to record the voiceovers...We'll see...)

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?

Laughed Aloud...Literally!

So, my new local yarn shop (new to me, not to the area) emailed a video out to everyone on their mailing list. I opened it during a break from my homework and literally started laughing so hard that I slipped off my chair. How embarrassing.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did: