Knitting and Crochet Class Finale

Our co-op had its Spring Open House, and is Officially Over. Our class once again had a display table at the Open House, this time highlighting crochet:



from which you can see the fascination with the amigurumi bunny egg cozies (free pattern on the Lion Brand site, but you must sign up for a password to access it). Some of the kids made DOZENS of these, putting them over plastic Easter eggs with little treats in them, then distributing them for Easter. Then, one of the girls (the one with the largest army of bunnies) developed a sudden fascination with the crocheted roses at PlanetJune, and suddenly EVERYONE was crocheting roses.

Many items had been given away in the course of the year, and some of the kids opted to not display their stuff for whatever reason (given that Annabeth's amigurumi hamster wandered off in the course of the evening, probably in the clutches of some little kid, you can understand the reluctance to display some of the really cool stuff)(we eventually found the hamster in the lost-and-found).

The one suggestion I'd make if you're teaching middle-to-high school kids crochet or knitting -- besides bringing in magazines and books for project inspiration, take along a laptop or tablet and connect them with Ravelry or somesuch so they can browse free patterns. Given some of the content on Ravelry, you might want to browse with them to steer them away from some of the weirder stuff (for example, don't type in "american girl" and expect to only get innocuous pictures of stuff for dolls -- the phrase is used for other things, too). That's how the student ended up on PlanetJune -- she'd been looking through the author's book, saw the site address, looked it up online to see if the author had a pattern for a llama (she does, but it isn't free), and ended up finding the free pattern for roses.

By the way, the Totoros in the pictures were mine. I'd taken them along in case we didn't have much to put on the table -- I never know what the kids will think to bring, or if several will forget to bring anything at all. Another tip: lots of times they forgot their projects when they came to class, so it was good to have extra yarn and hooks so they could make some little something (roses! bunnies!) during the class time.

So, I'm glad that's over. Really, I've always thought I would loathe being a middle school teacher, and although I liked the kids in the class, I still feel that way. Too much drama.

We thought this would be the end of our co-op experience, but we've decided to sign up for a couple of classes next year. Thalia will be taking Kinetic Physics there -- the teacher is a mom who was a mechanical engineer and is an excellent instructor. Annabeth wants to take the Shepherd's Life Science -- I've no clue about the program, but she thinks it will be grand. And when I asked what they wanted me to do, get this -- they want me to teach 3rd-5th grade science! YES -- the same grades as the Junior Girl Scout badge book! AND they have no preconceived notions of curriculum, so I have carte blanche, sort of.

Seriously, talking to the other moms, I think we're going to do Physical Science and maybe a little Botany. And the emphasis will be on things that are too messy, too smelly, too BIG to do at home. In other words, we're going to be throwing Mentos in diet coke, making Ooblek, cooking red cabbage for a pH indicator, and generally having a weekly science camp. If you have any gotta-try-it ideas, let me know.

Crochetville

I had decided to teach crochet in the spring to our co-op knitting and crochet class because I like crochet better than knitting when the weather warms up.

By random chance it happened that some of the kids were ready to start learning right before Christmas break. So I got them started. This worked well from the standpoint of working one-on-one with them. I just whipped out crochet hooks and yarn, did a brief demo of finger crochet, showed them how to use a hook to accomplish the same thing, then worked on single crochet into that foundation chain. Much discussion ensued about WHERE TO PUT THE HOOK -- under both loops? Does it matter? Interesting to discover that one of the girls who already crochets was under the impression that it really doesn't matter.

Also, much discussion about HOW TO HOLD THE YARN. I was pretty low key about how they held their yarn for knitting, but for crochet it's nearly impossible if it isn't in the left hand (if you're crocheting with your right hand) and it REALLY REALLY NEEDS TO come around the index finger or some other designated spot ("But, see, my index finger is crooked, so I can't do it that way." "First of all, it's gliding around the finger, so whether or not your finger is crooked doesn't make a difference. Second of all, if you don't want to use your index finger you can use your middle finger, but you're going to have it coming around SOMETHING."). I'd say those 2 things are a MUST (left hand, coming around a finger) but someone somewhere probably does an awesome job crocheting one handed or somesuch -- never say never -- but for these kids in this situation, left hand and yarn around a finger is their best bet.

After Christmas I made little foundation chains for everyone to practice on so they didn't have to mess with that first row, which is the toughest row (just like knitting).

The last time I taught someone to crochet was a couple of years ago when Thalia was working on a Scout project. I showed her how its done, she did it ... the whole lesson took less than 5 minutes. This time, though, I discovered a whole slew of things people could get wrong or be confused about. I've now analyzed every single movement I make with the hook in an effort to explain it to others. Gah. I can see why crochet is taught after knitting in Waldorf schools -- the thought process is different, and some people don't make the leap.

I've told them several times that I want them to learn the basics of crochet, then they can go back to knitting, if desired. Or they can decide to never knit again in their lives, and just crochet. (Or they can ditch both, but only after the class is done for the year.)

Anyway, after our rocky start, observing that people needed a sense of direction like the dishcloths we did in our knitting segment, I decided to show them how to make granny squares. This was taught to those who were interested -- those who'd already selected a project and wanted to work on that were welcome to (one girl who already knows how to crochet extremely well is working on knitting a hat, although she sometimes pauses to help other students with the crochet). I used written directions with a photo (link is pdf). One girl instantly zipped one out, just looking at the photo. Others ... struggled. It was really a range of abilities. So the next week I took ina chart. This really helped a couple of people. Plus it's a good idea to teach how to crochet from a chart, and I wish I'd thought of it before.

Annabeth really took off with the granny squares after this, making up an idea for mitts





and a matching headband.



Next up I plan to teach how to crochet amigurumi. I've had Annabeth giving it a try. We started out using patterns from Amigurumi World because I thought it was nice that you could make so many different animals from the same basic shape. Annabeth made a pink cat to try out the directions for me, since she's a beginner.



She did okay with it, but it occurred to me that some people in the class are going to really struggle -- they question each time they have to put the hook in a different stitch, they are somewhat unable to count rows and stitches, they question everything. I'm more the sort to say, "give it a whirl and see what happens, and if it isn't right rip it out and try again," but some people are so intense you'd think we're building nuclear reactors out of crochet; they're so wound up about whether they about doing everything EXACTLY RIGHT whilst concurrently unwilling to take responsibility for putting their crochet hook in the wrong stitch. Ack. It's exhausting to think about.

So I decided to do the Lion Brand egg cozy, which has less shaping and doesn't use safety eyes (a whole 'nuther potential for heartache, since once you put safety eyes in they're STUCK and can't be moved). This guy is festooning a plastic Easter egg, so he's tilty. Plus I sewed his ears on crooked, which I thought was sort of jaunty.




I used part of a cotton ball for the tail.



In the meantime, Annabeth pondered what she now knew about crochet ovoid shapes, and pondered one of her classmate's desire to crochet baby booties, and made up a pattern:



We need to take them next door to see how they work on baby feet.

She also made up a pattern for slippers for herself (another classmate wanted to find a pattern for slippers):



See, this is what is fun about crochet -- early in the game you can just mess around and make up your own stuff, assuming you're willing to accept the risk of make a total mess. I hope others in the class try designing their own stuff, too. I decided to take in some swatches so they could see the difference between, say, single crochet (on top) and double crochet (on bottom) and start to think about how they drape differently, how they curl, how would they work -- all handy things to know when designing, or, for that matter, deciding whether or not to crochet a particular pattern.



In the meantime, Thalia was inspired to use the Amigurumi World pattern for a pear




which she named George. I thought it should be named Malcolm (after Malcolm Reed on Star Trek Enterprise, of course).


And I've been working on more crochet collars for the Choreography Team dresses



which I've also taken in to class to show the kids. Again, perhaps it will inspire someone to try something new. Crochet is such a HUGE subject, and there are so many things to try. Too bad we don't have time to try them all.

Co-op Open House

The co-op in which I teach knitting had an open house this week. The various classes put on performances or displayed some of their work. I set up boxes and fabric on our table, and then the kids in the class arranged things and made signs. And also, apparently, left a roll of blue tape (everyone proclaimed cluelessness about where that came from, along with extreme vagueness about who made the "do not touch" sign). If you click on the picture you can enlarge it.





This isn't everything everyone made. Some things weren't put on the table because they're unfinished (although other UnFinished Objects were put on display). The pumpkin hat is the one I made Annabeth, which she stuck on the table. The hats to the right were made on a knitting loom -- the girl who made them couldn't find any of the stuff she'd made during class, organization not being her strong point (nor is focussing, nor finishing what she starts ... but she's learned several new techniques, so that's nice). And not everyone made cards to "sign" their work, preferring to remain anonymous.

The purple scarf to the lower left is by a student who struggled and struggled to learn knitting. She managed to learn knit stitch, purl stitch, casting on and binding off during this semester; she then went out and bought a skein of Homespun and knit this amazing garter stitch scarf.

And the alligator scarf to the lower right was knit by a girl who knew solely how to form a knit stitch. A close up:





As you can see, eyelash yarn scarves were popular. We also have some knitting with cut up plastic bags going on.



Overall, the kids have really stretched themselves, learned new things, and had fun. One of the coolest things about the class is that some of the really shy, quiet girls are now part of the crowd, so to speak, at social events like this -- they sit in class chattering away, and it's carrying over into other venues.

One more class this semester, and then on to spring semester and crochet. I'm still not sure how to approach the crochet portion of the class, sigh.

Knitting!

This week in knitting class we talked about:

Kitchener stitch. I just showed them the example so they'd know it exists, and discussed applications. I never can remember how to do it without looking at directions, so I'm certainly not going to ask anyone else to memorize it. Please rest assured that I don't typically use violently contrasting yarn in these applications, but thought it made it easier to see what's going on.


Matress stitch. This one IS worth knowing off the top of your head, since it comes up so much, plus it's so easy once you see it. I went over it with a few students one-on-one -- people who were going to be using it in their projects.



And three needle bindoff, which is another easy-peasy way to join 2 pieces, although these would be 2 pieces butting up against each other. Again, I discussed some applications, drifting into my sewing mode to talk about the importance of having structure at a shoulder seam (I refrained from mentioning that I thought knitwear designers who avoid shoulder seams for the sake of avoiding seaming, choosing instead something like grafting, are obviously clueless about garment construction ... but I thought it strongly).



I'm not sure -- is this enough about joining? I hit some of the major highlights. I don't want to overburden them, but want them to be aware of the possibilities, so they don't have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, when making their own design decisions.

Frankly, the main projects right now are scarves and fingerless mitts, neither of which need seaming. Two sisters whipped up a couple of eyelash yarn scarves for a craft fair last week, and were excited to report they actually sold one! Whoot!

As for me, my current projects are also scarves. I've finished the One Row Lace Scarf out of the 2 skeins of Seduce I bought last summer whilst going nuts crocheting all of the Choreography Team collars:




Using size 8 needles, it ended up 5 and a half feet long, which is a great size for me.

And now I've started the Missoni knock-off scarf, using the exact same yarn Selfish Seamstress used (which I supposed makes it a SelfishSeamstress knock-off scarf, yes?). Although I'm using smaller needles due to my eternally looser gauge, which I assume is looser than hers. Not that I would've swatched even if she HAD provided a gauge.




Eventually I'll get around to posting about homeschool again. Really. It does go on here now and then. It's just so ... daily. It doesn't have nice, neat starts and finishes like knitting projects or feisseanna. Or Girl Scout badges (which are, frankly, the most popular posts I write). Until then, you might want to check out the amazing new discovery I've made: you can read much of the Jedi Apprentice series (apparently out-of-print) free online. I'll let you have the pleasure of figuring out where to find it, since I know you'll feel as clever as I did when it works.

Knitting

Last week I finally got around to playing around with food coloring and wool yarn. I used the directions here , except I used the cheapy liquid bottles you buy 4 to a box at the grocery, since I figured that's what most kids would have access to. I used about half the tube of green, and tried dyeing my felted swatch, along with some other yarn.

It started taking up the dye immediately, but didn't really get to nearly "clear water" conditions until it spent about 30 minutes at 350F. I showed the kids this photo of what that looked like:



By the way, we didn't do this in class because, among other things, it took way more time than we had. I have to go flying out of there right after class to get my kids to a different place for different classes, so I don't have time to get everything spread out for drying. At home I simply plopped everything on the back porch:


They did get to see the finished products, though:


Check it out -- I didn't move the items the entire time they were in the bowl, and the top of the felted piece ended up darker than the bottom.


Next I'm going to cut up my felted piece and make it into a Christmas ornament.

After showing the kids the exciting dyeing stuff in class (and telling them that, no, I didn't think it was a great idea to try dyeing their hair this way, although apparently one of the girls had once tried using KoolAid and it came out a very unexpected color), we moved on to GAUGE SWATCHES. Which was significantly less fun.

I had made 3 swatches using the same yarn and the same number of stitches (rather random on the rows). I blocked them, too, since you must "do unto thy gauge swatch as thou shalt do unto thy finished knitting". Or something like that.


I had marked which swatch was made on which sized needle by making either eyelets or purl stitches in appropriate amounts.


And then, most cruelly, I insisted that the 2 girls who are planning on making mitts START MAKING GAUGE SWATCHES. Aaaaahhhhhrrrrg, the moaning and gnashing of teeth! It's so booooorrrrrrrriiiiiiiinnnngggg! Actually, one girl had already made a small swatch, and her gauge was way off, so she had to make another. And, get this, it had to be more than, like, 2 rows of knitting.

Really, I tried to talk to them about the trials of making an entire garment and then realizing that your gauge was off, and how crappy THAT was. I also gave them a bit of a talk on figuring out size -- negative ease versus positive ease, etc. Overall I think the kids who'd decided to make something unfitted, like scarves or more dishcloths, were feeling pretty good about their decision since they didn't need to mess with the dreaded gauge swatch.

Meanwhile, at home knitting -- I'm working on the Totoro hat, and have the mouth done in intarsia. It will be outlined in black after the knitting is done.



(Don't tell the class, but I didn't make a gauge swatch. I figure after this many years of knitting I know about what's going to happen, since I invariably knit more loosely than the pattern. Also, a hat is about the right size to be its own gauge swatch.)

Also, the other morning I became convinced (for no good reason) that the class needs to see examples of knitting with slightly more unusual materials, so I decided to knit some wire . I stopped by and got the wire and beads, then took them to Thalia's voice lesson to string up the beads on the wire before starting the knitting.



Annabeth and I were counting out 134 beads on one of those little tables in the lobby, putting them in groups of 10, and Annabeth bumped the table, sending beads scattering. Guess what I'd never noticed before -- the new carpeting in the Dayspring lobby is pretty much these exact same colors. And now it's crunchy with hidden seed beads. Oops.

Anyway, looking forward to trying this when I finally get a chance to sit down and pay attention to what I'm knitting.

Recent Knitting

We drove to Indiana over the weekend, and on the way I worked on some knitting.

First off, one of the girls in the knitting class at co-op asked about knitting a tube, so I knit a cowl to demonstrate the concept. It's out of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick, knit on a size 13 circular needle. Really a super quick knit -- cast on 50 stitches, knit mostly stockinette, a couple of rows of increases stuck in it to give it a scootch of shaping -- it was a pattern I found on Ravelry, but I changed it some.



Then I did little swatches to show the class what different stitches do. Each swatch was 20 stitches across, knit for 25 rows, so a novice knitter might expect them all to be the same size and shape. From left to right, top to bottom, we have garter stitch, stockinette stitch, 2x2 ribbing, and 1x1 seed stitch. I also had a swatch of 1x1 ribbing, but it's disappeared. It didn't pull in as much as the 2x2 ribbing.

(For the record, this is a bright white acrylic yarn that looks like sushi rice when it's knit up, and the background is a robin's egg blue -- no clue what happened to these pictures.)



In particular I wanted them to become aware that stockinette wants to roll towards the front at the top and bottom



and roll towards the back at the sides.



That way if they decide to knit a scarf of their own design, they know some of the things that could happen.

I also made a couple of swatches with borders so they could see how that would work with stockinette. Left to right are a garter stitch border and a seed stitch border.




You can see that the garter stitch border makes a slight pull on the vertical selvedge of the swatch. Sometimes this doesn't matter, and sometimes it does. I told them I'm trying to equip them do what THEY want with knitting: knit exactly what a pattern says, make their own changes to a written pattern, or else design their own projects. To do that they have to discover some of the properties of knitting.

We also went over different types of needles in class -- circulars vs. double point vs. straight. And a little about what needles are made out of, although I probably should've said more about that. Next week we'll talk about different yarns, and about gauge swatches.

I have no idea if this is stuff typically covered in a beginning knitting class for kids this age. I've never taken a knitting class. But the kids seem okay with whatever I throw at them. As a matter of fact, they came up to me after lunch and asked if they could start class an hour early since several of them had study hall anyway. I think mostly they want to sit around and giggle while ostensibly producing some knitting, and talking isn't allowed in study hall ... our knitting class has gradually left the classroom space to which it was assigned and settled in a lounge area with cushy chairs.


Then, on Saturday, I finally cast on for the long-awaited pumpkin hat. I bought this as a kit several years ago from Morehouse, and had lost the pattern. I found another pattern on Ravelry and knit that up.





Next up on the needles, a Totoro hat!

Knitting Class

Two weeks in, and this is what we've done so far:

I bought some Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool at JoAnn's, using my 40% off coupons. I measured out about 65-70 yards, using my big measuring stick (measured 4 feet at a time, so I got about 50 lengths -- I didn't worry about being too exact with this).



I wound the piles of yarn into little balls, using a highlighter as a nostepinde (classy, eh?):


I got out 8 pairs of needles in sizes 10 or 10.5 or 9 -- again, this was a bit random. I cast on 25 stitches and knit 2 rows. I've noticed that the first row after casting on is the hardest to knit, so I thought I'd get them past that. Then I bagged each set of needles plus yarn in a big ziploc, and took them into the first class.

Handed them out to the 8 students, instructed those who already knew how to do a knit stitch (most of the class) to start knitting to sort of get warmed up, and then taught the 2 who had never held needles before in their lives how to do a knit stitch. I knit continental, so I taught them that way.

Then I asked who was ready to learn how to purl, and went around the room showing how to do a continental purl stitch. I encountered some really different ways of holding the yarn. I also observed that we have a mix of continental and English knitters, but thankfully none of the English knitters needed help that day, because, really, that whole business of holding the yarn in your right hand looks incredibly backwards to me (don't tell the students I said that, though, because I keep saying in class that there are lots of correct ways to do this stuff).

I sent them home with their little balls of yarn and needles, with instructions to practice. I emailed them links to various YouTube videos, selected according to how they held their yarn.

Some of them practiced, some didn't. One girl left her yarn at the place class meets, so she didn't work on it. One girl quit. Another girl asked to join. And thus we reached week 2.

Week 2 we worked on how to bind off. And I collected the samples that were finished (one wasn't done yet), put them in ziplocs and wrote their names with Sharpie so I could tell them apart. Although, really, they were fairly distinctive:


The one with the funky shaping in the upper left corner was a girl who already knows how to knit well -- the one who left her knitting in class. She was chatting away while binding off, and started knitting instead of binding off. So I said, "Oh, it's a design element!" which she thought was funny ... so she knit several rows over those few stitches to make a crazy shape. The person in the upper right corner had knit hers at home, and decided to add a bit of different yarn to see what would happen. Middle bottom was experimenting with knits and purls (she had just learned to purl the first week). To the right of hers is the one from the student who just started this week --"Do we have to use all the yarn?" "No, just until you're satisfied with it." She had a crash course in how to purl English-style, marking the first time I've ever done that in my life (glad I watched those YoutTube videos myself so I could fake it, although I admitted my brain was having to work much harder to show it to her). And piece in bottom right corner is from someone who just learned the knit stitch last week.

Close up of the piece featuring all the knits and purls. She managed to come up with a K1P1 rib, as well as seed stitch/moss stitch. She was fascinated that seed stitch had a name -- she was trying to do more ribbing, and "couldn't figure out what went wrong".


I'm now sending all of these through the washer with our towels. Some of the kids have started on cotton dishcloths. Others will start next week. And AnnaBeth is pretty sure she should switch over to our class, so she's working on a dishcloth here at home. The class was billed as "for ages 10 and up", but she'd be the youngest -- most are in grades 7-9.

So far so good. I think. I generally despise leading classes, but knitting is pretty much second nature, so it isn't horrible. So far.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Yes, it's another installment of Cotton Dishcloth Bonanza! Woohoo!

This week we've got a cable cloth:



I probably should've blocked it to make it look better. But, then again, this way the students will see how cables pull the knitting in to a narrower shape.

Also, I goofed up a knit/purl there on the left:


I can explain to the students how to fix it. Not that they'll retain HOW to do it, but they'll retain the idea that it can be fixed (at least, I hope they'll remember that).

Overall, this project reminded me how much I enjoy cables. Something about how the stitches wind back and forth just fascinates me.

Also, a heart, which is heavily based on the iconic diagonal dishcloth pattern:


Oddly, the pattern called for size 10 needles, although every other pattern I've done has used size 7. Same yarn and all, different needles. So I used size 7 anyway, figuring these cloths stretch like crazy as soon as they're wet.

We're getting to the end of this exercise, which is probably good since my productivity has dropped tremendously (totally due to boredom with it). The class for which I'm knitting all of these starts next week, and I still have to do a boatload of prep for our first project, which will be learning to knit using felt-able wool yarn. Also, Annabeth has realized that she needs a crocheted Jiji after watching Kiki's Delivery Service this weekend. So, new adventures in crafting ahead!

Work in Progress Wednesday

More dishcloth knitting, with a generous side of ennui.

Did I ever show you the finished lighthouse? The color is off in this shot, but you get the idea:



The most annoying lace pattern I've ever knit:



That diagonal cloth everyone knits, even though it then stretches on the diagonal and drives me nuts (I like the colors of this yarn, though):



Still more cloths to come, although I'm am so. bored. with. this. that it took most of the day to get around to binding off the final 4 stitches on the diagonal cloth.

Also, part of this afternoon was spent sewing on 12 Junior Girl Scout badges, 2 signs, and all the cookie falderal (and I do mean ALL, since she'd done booth sales, done Gift of Caring sales, attended a cookie rally, and sold over 100 boxes -- each of those items earns yet another patch), plus some other random fun patches. Scouts is starting up again for the year. I met with a couple of other moms this afternoon to get different names on the troop checking account (pity the guy who helped us because we were talking to each other NONSTOP the entire time, since we rarely get a chance to just sit and talk mom-to-mom except on camping trips).

Mostly, though, the day was spent figuring out curriculum. I awoke this morning with the firm conviction that Thalia should drop one of her classes (Constitutional Law, which I think might be a bit much for a high school freshman). She agreed, particularly since she just got a part time babysitting job that will be taking up some of her study time. Now we need to scurry around filling the void with history and perhaps logic.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Cranking out the cotton dishcloths for the co-op class ... so far we have Illusion knitting:




monogram out of knits and purls:


and just started some lace today:


Also starting school work in earnest, continuing negotiations regarding theater and dance classes (that is, how many should sane people take), and enjoying the normal (not sweltering) weather. And lots of time spent laughing about nothing in particular.