teaching | Woolen Diversions

… still so far. Folks, I did my darnedest, but this vest is just not going to be complete by tomorrow.

Nearly there, but not quite.

Seaming in progress.

Look at that beauty!

The shoulders and sides are seamed, but the armhole and neckline edgings still remain. While that’s not really a lot of knitting, it is an awful lot of fiddly knitting involving 3 different needle sizes, tubular bind-offs, and copious amounts of kitechener stitch. That’s all well-and-good for a quiet evening at home, but not so great for traveling or for when a bunch of your out-of-state friends are about to come visit. I was a bit of a madwoman last night filling orders for Sweet Sheep, seaming up the sweater, and writing and printing knitting instructions to use when I teach some Girl Scouts how to knit tonight. (Thanks for your helpful suggestions, I ended up putting together my own little booklet with text hat I wrote and with illustrations borrowed from the TechKnitter’s blog. She’s amazing, btw.) I’m glad I was able to get the vest more-or-less assembled, but I’m accepting that it just won’t be ready to wear in time.

Swatches for teaching.

I also had to do a little swatching to demonstrate to the kiddos their two Harry Potter scarf options: garter stitch or 1×1 rib. I’m really looking forward to my evening of teaching, I just wish it didn’t coincide with this particularly busy weekend and a host of other things I need to be doing. Ah well, deadlines wait for no one, am I right? That reminds me of one of my favorite (and ever-relevant) quotes:

European-Paper-Company-Douglas-Adams-Whooshing-Deadlines

Yes.

Douglas Adams totally gets me, man.

For me, certain projects require a bit of a push. There’s almost always one all-out, late-night, knit-fest to get through some part of a project. Last night was the endurance portion of my Overdyed Cypress vest knitting, but it paid off.

WIPWed #79: Blocking and Plotting | Woolen Diversions

On the blocking boards! Click for project page.

The back and front of my vest are complete, similarly-shaped (the back is purposefully narrower than the front), and vaguely garment-like. Once they dry, I will seam them up and then it’ll be just a matter of adding armhole and neckline trim before Saturday. I’m a little worried that the pieces are too long (I didn’t make row gauge and tried to compensate for that) but we’ll just have to wait and see about the fit. Sometimes, staying up into the wee hours to power through shoulder shaping sections is totally worth it.

Garnet Tonic, click for project page.

Meanwhile, the cowl that I’m so in love with is progressing, slowly but surely. I’ve forgotten how much I like working a simple lace pattern back and forth on straight needles. No shaping to fret about, it doesn’t get longer any as you go, and there’s no annoying circular needle join to contend with. Pure pleasure.

WIPWed #78: Blocking and Plotting | Woolen Diversions

Lendrum Falkland wool, click for handspun page.

I’m still chugging away on the never-ending-pound of Falkland wool that I used for my ply experiment. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a delightful fiber and a joy to spin, I’m just itching to make some big fluffy colorful singles yarns, and this flow of fine white fiber is not abating.

On an entirely different note, does anyone have any good teaching resources for brand new knitters? I’ve volunteered to teach a bunch of middle-to-high-school-aged girls how to knit this Friday, and I haven’t had a chance to do much searching for materials yet. We’re going to be making Harry Potter scarves, in either striped garter stitch or 1×1 rib (their choice) and I’ll have some samples to show, but it would be great to have some illustrations and written directions that they could take home with them on a handout. If anyone knows of some good resources, please let me know!