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There are many changes and some exciting news for me to share with you today. The first announcement is that I got a job! I am now working as an Instructional Assistant in a local Elementary school. I am really enjoying the work. It was a bit of a whirlwind, because I was interviewed and hired on a Wednesday and had to report to work the following Monday. That first week was the week before school started, so I had to scramble to find child care. Along with that new activity, my daughter was working on a play. I was drafted into running the light board for the play and so had to be at every performance and dress rehearsal. So, I was working every day and on Thursdays and Fridays, I was working from 8:30am until midnight. It was a crazy four weeks.
Now that I have lived through that, things are getting back to a pretty regular schedule. I have started knitting again a bit and have finished two languishing projects and have made good progress on my Ingenue sweater. I have other projects that need to get started, but alas, they will have to wait. There is much to be done!
In Knit One, Teach One news, I have started a new knitting group. Our first meeting will be tomorrow, Monday, before school. I have had at least 3 teachers tell me that they are coming to learn how to knit or to learn new techniques. My homework has been to come up with some basic patterns for them to knit. I think that flat knit handwarmers and cowls will be a great start for them. I will need to have my donated needles ready and will need to think of other items that they will need. It’s a bit of a crash course, but it’s a perfect way for me to start a new official Knit One, Teach One group. Hopefully, I will soon be able to do a knitting group with students, but this first venture looks to be promising!
More news to come….
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Learning to knit… I have to say that for me it was a long and totally indirect route. I learned to knit and purl ages ago when my mother taught me. For some reason, it didn’t take. I tend to think that it’s for the same reason I never learned to sew. She is so accomplished and brilliant a knitter that it seemed ridiculous for me to try to learn. After I got married, I took a few classes at a local shop and learned a few things more about knitting. I chose projects that were too frustratingly tedious to ever finish. I guess that I just didn’t know any better.
Then, a few years ago, my daughter filmed a movie in the lovely town of Staunton, VA. Staunton is a 30 minute drive west of Charlottesville and is a beautiful place full of charming independent shops. The shop that did me in is ‘On the Lamb’ a lovely Local Yarn Shop, or LYS owned by Joe. Joe and Angel are the driving forces behind the shop. They are fantastic. I fell in love with them and the shop and the gorgeous yarns. Mom and I signed up for a fall knitting class with Annie Modesitt and another chapter opened up for me.
The class with Annie was a total eye opener. She explained knitting in a way that made me understand knitting and shaping fabric. It was liberating. Learning to make a mitered handbag and being told that I could make my stitches any way I liked as long as I understood what I was doing was exactly what I wanted to hear. I learned so much.
The second thing that happened to me during that knitting weekend was that I met the love of my life. In order to make the mitered bag for the class that weekend, we were instructed to go pick out several skeins of coordinating merino wool, but not just any merino. When I met the colors and feel of Malabrigo Worsted yarn, I fell instantly, deeply and permanently in love. The attributes of Malabrigo yarn is well documented, and I am definitely one of the junkies that knits with and dreams of its beauty and softness.
This perfect storm of understanding my knitting and meeting the perfect yarn for me made me officially a knitter and began an obsession that will last a lifetime.
That’s why I am committed to Knit One, Teach One. Learning to knit – to create wearable, useful, beautiful objects is one of the most empowering and satisfying things I have ever done and I believe that sharing that is my mission.
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Here it is… the epic first post to the Knit One, Teach One blog.
I am thrilled to have a blog to post information and to start the conversations that will make this group a force to help create more knitters.
Our mission is simple: to instill a sense of community and self esteem in people through teaching knitting and creating finished objects in groups called ‘Knitting Circles’
If you’re teaching someone to knit, please share your tips and experiences. If you are interested in learning how to knit – welcome! If you would like to teach knitting to a friend, a group or would like to learn more techniques, please follow us and we’ll all learn and teach together.
Let’s get started!
Christine Lively - farmgroupie on Ravelry
