Hm -- I wonder if the flak about that term has settled yet? Someone was tying to copyright the term and make anyone who used it back off. I haven't heard anything lately... Well, my girls love the phrase. We'll be Stitchin n Bitchin whether it's called that by name or not. That's Kelly on the far right, Becky holding the book and Jen hiding in back. Lala is perched on her Mom's lap. Three weeks ago it hit my daughter Jen that I really am moving to Kansas and Mom won't be just a holler away anymore. Suddenly it was "Mom! Teach me to knit before you go!" Gladly! So off we went to the yarn store for needles and yarn, not only for Jen, but also for granddaughter Lala (age 7). That evening we popped in one of my favorite videos (The Taming of the Shrew with Liz Taylor and Richard Burton) lined up on the couch and they learned to cast on and make the knit stitch.
When I explained the term "frog it" (for "rip-it, rip-it, rip-it" when you must tear out a mistake) Lala went into peals of laughter. She loves frogging. Last week she spent hours at the kitchen table, building popsycle stick buildings, then frogging them. It's a wonderful, all-purpose word -- sort of like the Scandahovian "Oof-tah!" we picked up when we lived in Minnesota. (Oof-tah can mean "Ah, go on with you!" "Oof, that's a long way down to pick up so small an object", or "Dang, I'm tired. Let me sit here a minute," or just about anything else.)
Jen and Lala have most of the traits of beginning knitters. They started off knitting too tightly. (They've worked out of that one by now.) Lala drops stitches. She will put the needle in, yarn over, then go to the next stitch instead of pulling the yarn through and slipping off the left needle. Jen adds stitches. The last stitch on her needle will roll, showing two threads where it should show one. She sees those two threads as two stitches and knits in them. Now that we've identified how the mistakes are made, we know to watch for them and fix them. Again, we have fun with it. If Jen should oops! and drop a stitch its "Oh, I did a Lala!" If Lala should add a stitch, it's "Oh! I did a Mommy!!" I was glad to learn the stitch making ditties that I've posted below. I'm hoping they will help Lala remember to finish her stitches.
The second weekend after they learned to knit was a Reyes weekend. (He lives with his Dad but visits his Mom every other weekend.) Becky, Jen's best friend, came over that weekend to learn to knit. Another trip to the yarn store! (Oh, such torture.) Back in the DVD player with Taming of the Shrew and now there are more folks learning to knit than will fit on the couch. Becky picked it up quickly. (The knitting, not the couch.
) Lala introduced her into the fine art of frogging. Lala really would have more knitting to show for her efforts if she didn't enjoy frogging so much...Come Sunday a very dejected Reyes (age 9) looked at me. "Can't I knit, too?" "Of course you can!" Hobby Lobby isn't open on Sunday, so for Reyes we went to Michaels. He has his own Lion Brand Kids Needles. His are size 10, cause he's the oldest. Lala's are size 8. He picked yarn from my yarn stash and back to the couch for his first knitting session. Don't teach an ADD boy to knit with the TV going. He got about 8-10 rows done before he had to go back to Dad's house, but America's Favorite Home Videos took it's toll on our knitting session. I'm not sure how much he learned.
So now our knitting session is Jen, Becky, Lala and Reyes. The following weekend Jen's other best friend, Kelly, came to learn to knit. Becky came as well. It was my last day at the Library. The girls fixed supper and we had potluck, video-fest and Stitch n Bitch. Not a bad way to finish the day. It was the last viewing of Taming of the Shrew. (I had to take it back to the library; I'm going to miss having staff priviledges and getting to check 3 day videos out for 2 weeks.) Kelly pulled a few Lala's and as many Jen's but she caught on quickly.
The adult girls are making garter stitch scarves on size 15 needles with Homespun yarn. (Lala and Reyes have smaller needles are are using a cotton worsted.) Each approaches the learning process differently. Kelly, the newest knitter, is still uptight about it. She struggled with working too tightly and how to form the stitches. I had her working with regular worsted weight yarn, but I could see her frustration factor rising, so I rummaged in my stash to find her some Homespun. She frogged the first project and cast on with the Homespun. "Oh! I love this. It's working!!" Once she had a different yarn she was home free. Not only is Homespun soft, it has a curly nature. Those wavy threads doesn't want to be pulled down as tightly as worsted weight, so Kelly has a natural "brake" on the 'too tight" factor.
Jen has finished her first scarf. It has a wasp waist at the bottom and waves in and out as she learned how to count her stitches and keep from adding stitches. There are a few holes where she dropped stitches, but she doesn't want to tear it out. "It's my masterpiece! I made an entire scarf!" Much as Julie noticed when I taught her to knit last fall, the quality of the work improves in the last 1/3 of the scarf. Jen has started scarf #2 with some Lion Brand Jiffy Thick and Quick. It's working up beautifully. No wavy edges, no dropped stitches. Jen has mastered the garter stitch scarf.
Becky, on the other hand, doesn't want mistakes in her first scarf. She only has about three feet finished because she has frogged freely to repair dropped or added stitches. The yarn she is using has a subtle varigation to it. When she first noticed that one section was darker than the other, it worried her. Was she doing something wrong? Now she has knitted far enough for the repeat to show. She spends time admiring the cloth that is growing under her fingers and enjoying it's changes. Isn't this why we all knit? It's so much fun to watch something that was nothing -- a ball of yarn~ grow and become beautiful?
Lala just likes being included in what the grown-ups are doing. She get's frustrated easily and brings me her work to fix stitches. I may suggest she work on her weaving next time if the knitting isn't satisfying. It's more important that she have a good experience with handicrafts than that she finish anything properly. Now, I wonder if I've already packed all of the Knifty Knitters? She and Reyes were getting pretty good with those last winter.
Next Friday will be our last session before Pat returns. When he gets here, we fill the U-Haul and head North. Becky hsd been here during the week. She's been so good to help Jen and I move furniture or boxes or whatever it takes as I pack to leave this house and Jen moves into it. We're going to have Reyes next weekend and invite Kelly to come back. I hope to get a good photo of our group to post with this blog note. I want to teach at least one of them the purl stitch before I go. Jen isn't ready to learn it. She says she wants to be secure in the knit before she learns something new. (Not a bad idea). Perhaps Becky or Kelly will be ready. If not, I'll refer them to Julie, Jolene, Elisabeth, and the other knitters at the library when they are ready to learn. Jolene can always find the knitting video for them. Hm... I can send them the link for www.knittinghelp.com, too.
I'm so glad to see the girls knitting. They have a tradition to keep up now. Weekend videos and SnB.
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