Knit Night Success ...

Well I'd say there was some! We had a number of folks here, some to knit, some to socialize - all was fun! Let's see, on the knitting side were Maria, Christina, Kathy, Eileen, Sheila, Molly, Patricia, and Laurie. On the socializing side were Sharon, Chris, Samantha - and downstairs, Michael and Nick. What a great crowd. Now, as the knitting crowd grows, it is evident that there may not be enough one-on-one instruction time to suffice. Fortunately some are willing to stay late (or check back later) to get their questions in. This is working for me, hopefully it will for the students too.

Let's see, what happened. Molly was here for the first time and she learned to knit. With practice piece in hand she made several rows before the night was out If she'll keep up the good work, she'll be on to a project in no time.

Sheila is making good progress against her pattern. The letters she is showing as purled stitches on a stockinette field are coming out nicely. At the present rate she'll be finishing up soon and we'll have the completed piece to see. This week she had me look over her work a bit to see if I saw blatant mistakes but I didn't see any. She's made several rip outs and restarts but over all is getting the hang of it. She was proud to announce at the end of the night she completed the entire session WITHOUT the assistance of the teacher. Way to go, Sheila. (And we won't mention how many times she came to see teacher during the preceding week. :-)

Christina showed up with a whole bag full of goodies, having obviously spent quality time with Orly at The Gourmet Yarn Shop. Her plan is to do a pair of house shoe / clogs like Eileen is working up. Her scheme will be to use two smaller strands of yarn and knit them together as one for the required thickness. No need for test felting because she is using the same 100% Merino wool that I used on mine. So we know it works. Christina finished up her dishcloth, binding it off when she arrived, and it looks good. She has the knit vs. purl thing down and anxious to start the new shoes. The pattern has instructions for W&T: Wrap and Turn; P2TOG: purl 2 together; SSK: Slip, Slip, Knit; and M1: Make 1. We stepped through what each was and set her up with a practice piece of the right yarn, two strands, on her new circular needles. After a little practice, she hopes to cast on and begin. She even practiced a little casting on to get that down. Can't wait to see what she gets done this week.

Laurie and Patricia hit me a couple of times with questions and snafus. In no time, though, we had them back on the right track. Laurie is working up a Christmas scarf in a bright green that is looking quite festive. Patricia is working a multi-colored scarf, working in color changes by changing yarns. It's looking great.

Kathy has her practice piece well underway and ready to move on to something 'real'. She picked out a pattern from one of the Dishcloth pattern books and will start on it. Unfortunately, she had to leave before I got her going so I took on a little after class work and got it started for her, sending it by Sharon the next morning to her house. She claims she'll have tons of questions, but even so, I expect we'll see some good progress soon.

Maria finished up her coaster pattern piece, working out what she likes, what she might change regarding both the graphic and features of the piece. Orly didn't have the right color yarn available last week so Maria had to wait until this week to get the needed material. In the meantime I had some extra of the kind she is going to use, so I cast some on and got her going on a gauge swatch. It will serve to gauge initial knitting and then the final gauge after felting. From there we'll calculate the final design.

Eileen is well on her way to finishing clog number two! It's getting exciting to see the second one come along. It's been a pesky little thing though, throwing a couple of good curves Eileen's way as she's worked up the pattern. (In my enthusiasm to encourage the pattern, I might have suggested it was a bit easier than it actually is. Good thing Eileen likes a challenge.) She will be in an excellent position to help Christina through the pitfalls as she is taking on the same pattern. Eileen's choice of such for her first project is making her show her mettle - but mettle she has and she's hanging in there. We're going to see a cool pair of slippers on here before long. By evening's end, Eileen was back on track and making progress. I can't wait to see how good they look next week.

The BIG moment of the night? Christina brought me a copy of Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts edition (Interweaveknits.com)! This is magazine and this yearly edition is one of my absolute favorites! The good news for the Knit Night crowd is the magazine will now be available in our 'library' for any to peruse and explore. This year's edition touts 30 Knits to Give and Get - lots of great little projects that make cool Christmas gifts.

It was a great night .. can't wait until next week. In the mean time .. keep on knitting!