Teaching, Knitting and Friends

Yesterday's Thrummed Slippers in Progress

I love to teach knitting;  Getting someone else as excited as I am about what we can do with our needles and yarn;  Looking for that AHA moment when a knitter grasps the concept and knows how to use it!  Making and keeping new friends!  Teaching knitting has brought me many joys and made me many friends.  And right now I am in full swing, classes are happening and the spring session is in the planning stage, and the retreat is fully planned – though the work is only partly finished.  And every day new knitters come into my life and offer the opportunity to make new friends.

A knitting Picnic - shared food, conversation and knitting!

Knitting is a wonderful activity, even as we practise it we can chat and share with our neighbour, the knitter beside you, across from you and the teacher in front of you – all have something different to offer. 

Before I started teaching, knitting was pretty much a solitary affair for me – and from talking to others – it was pretty much the same for most of us!  This really has changed in the last 10 years.  As knitting became more popular, more and more people came back to or rediscovered or simply discovered the “Joy of Knitting”.   As knitting grew, so did the knitting websites, Ravelry, Knitting Help and even Facebook, have encouraged and supported knitters in their efforts to connect with others with the same interests.  The popularity of the craft has supported the classes I teach and increased the opportunities for new friendships to develop, both locally and on-line!

One of Lifes' little challenges, always easier to sort out when shared!

If you are a knitter -try sharing the skill – and maybe make some new friends.  If you are a solitary knitter, look for a local “Stitch and Bitch” or try joining an on-line community.  You’ll be amazed at how much we are all alike.  We all make kniting mistakes, we all have to rip out more often than we would like, and we all have life challenges that are always easier when shared.

Happy Knitting

Lynette

Never Not Knitting

also Not Knitting right now!!

What do you do when you don’t feel like knitting – your hands/wrists are sore – you don’t feel well – your project is fighting you – etc!?  What are your distractions of choice?  Mine include reading, walking, photography (new and usually included with walking) and now Blogging!

I love books.  My first job was in a library, filing books away and I have always bought and kept books.  Knitting opened up a whole new avenue of reading and whiling away the hours when not knitting.

Distractions Abound!!

I will sometimes read a good book – it is getting harder to find one of those!  But most often I will pick up a book that is about knitting.  There are several out there now.  My favorite is still Knitter’s Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman;  Anything by Stephanie Purl Mcphee ( but the first one – At Knit’s End – is still the best):  For the Love of Knitting, a compilation of essays, and Bishop Rutts The History of Handknitting.  I also enjoy perusing Creative Dressing by Kaori O’Connor – It was the first time I had ever seen anything by Kaffe Fassett!  I’ll read almost any light book that includes knitting somehow – try Maggie Sefton, Debbie MacComber or Agatha Christie.  Friday Night Knitting Club made me laugh and cry.  Norah Gaughans’ book Knitting Nature sits right beside Michael S. Schneiders’ book A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe – The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art and Science – A Vogage from 1 to 10.  Both books look at numbers and their relationships to natural shapes.  There is so much interesting and cool out there!

More Distractions!

Right now I’m not knitting my Thrummed Slippers!  What are you not knitting?

Happy Knitting

Lynette

My last walk in “Cathedral Grove” on Vancouver Island. 

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/24365805@N06/sets/72157625038854877/show/