One down...

one to go! I spent part of Friday teaching one of my students to knit. We snuck out for "coffee", which was really yarn, and I got her all set up with some basic yarn (Cascade 220) and some needles and got her going. She took to it right away, including the cast on part, and was having a blast. I left her with only the knit stitch to start, I didn't have any books or anything to loan her (I know, what kind of librarian am I anyway?!) and told her I'd get her going with the purl stitch today if she wanted. The bulk of the lesson was during my lunch hour, so I didn't completely blow off work, though my new director acted as if I did. (Let's just say he's discovering that he really can't do everything and he's making a lot of mistakes with the things he is doing. Sadly, those things can't be done by anyone else as no one else knows how. To top it all off, he's got this temper thing going, we're all just waiting for him to blow.)

We'll see how she did over the weekend, but she was really enjoying it. Her DH is in the navy and is about to ship out for a few months (or something, but not Iraq), so she was looking for something to keep her busy at home and something that could work on the ferry, between classes, etc. She's pretty jazzed at the thought that she could crank out gifts for the holidays while she's at it. The ferry ride is an hour each way, so 2 hours of knitting a day - unless that pesky studying rears its ugly head! I'm sort of jealous. This girl is not afraid of knitting in public either - Woo-Hoo! She said her husband was making fun of her for knitting (it is fine for his grandmother, but not her) and I reminded her that she has two very pointy sticks now, and if she really loves knitting she will soon have more. He will learn to temper his remarks or he might gain a few new piercings, and she is the sort of girl to give it a go! I'm thinking there will be a steep but fast learning curve for him.

Just one more student to add to the knitting world, I think she'll get pretty motivated once she sees the other one didn't wait on her. I'm not so sure she'll absorb it as quickly, but we'll see. One thing I've learned about my students is that they can always surprise me. Usually that is a good thing.

I was pretty encouraged by the whole experience. She picked it up very quickly and didn't seem too put out by her early struggles (death grip on the needles and yarn, dropped stitches - she instinctively knew how to pick them up and get going again, etc.). I warned her that for many people, casting on is the hardest part and operating the needles is just awkward for a bit. She picked up the casting on part quickly and just kept going. Of course, if she had to do it again on her own, it might not go as easily, but if she's comfortable with the process, and perhaps already in love with the knitting part, she'll get it.

It was a good end to an insane work week, which was very much needed. Reading back over this, is has an over-caffeinated feel to it to me. Sorry. I haven't had any today. I am feeling very rushed and pressured in general, however, so that might be overflowing into my writing. Sorry. How about a funny story?

Saturday I got out and mowed the lawn. It took an hour and a half to do the whole thing, load of fun, but it was lovely outside. A bit cool, but that was even better as the breeze kept me cooled off. The kids were down the street playing with all of the others on a trampoline. I came back in the house, gave my DH all of my clothes for laundry (he did the laundry, I did the yard) and went to take a shower. My DH was working downstairs on a recording project for our church. We have a 20th anniversary celebration coming up and he is trying to help get some projects completed. Anyway, while I was in the shower (upstairs) a whole pack of kids came in to play. I turned off the water and found that I had one towel and nothing else. Nothing except a house full of kids that weren't mine, with a number of 8-10 year old boys among them. Yep. I had to make it through the kid-pack to get to my room full of clothes. My husband, being hard at work downstairs, was out of ear-shot and oblivious to my difficulties. Yep. Fun-ny! After the mad dash to the bedroom. Then the soon-to-be-five year old got all helpful. She kept opening the bedroom door to tell me what everyone was doing. I finally locked myself in the smaller bathroom to finish changing clothes.

Fortunately, no one seemed to notice my distress or lack of dress. So, I don't think I permanently scarred anyone but myself on this one. My husband has been receiving a lot of crap from me on it, but I do realize it is funny. Really. I do.