Persistent Knitter

I recently picked up the Fall 2004 InKnitters. Mainly on the advice of Kim over at string-or-nothing. Her recommendation was spot-on. There are some great technical articles in this issue. I wasn’t too thrilled with most of the patterns in the magazine, but they weren’t horrid.

The one article in particular that I liked was on Buttonholes, by Lucy Neatby. I can’t wait to do something with buttonholes to give this a try. Really. It’s that cool. I have decided that I really really like all the techniques I’ve seen Lucy Neatby write about. First, the short row garter stitch heel. Now this. She also did this book: Cool Socks, Warm Feet. I learned my crochet method of doing provisional cast on from her in this book. (I have yet to knit any of the sock patterns from it :)

Enabling!
I’m proud to say that this weekend I was a knitting-enabler. I helped a young girl start to knit. There we (Ingrid and I) were at our knitting group in the bookstore cafe, merrily knitting away. A young girl’s mother comes over to us and asks us to look at a book/kit to see if it would be appropriate for her daughter to use to learn to knit. We perused the book (see it at amazon here) and decided it was an excellent book. It comes with needles, a crochet hook, a plastic tapestry needle and yarn. The projects in it were really quite cute.

As I was looking through the book, I asked her, “What project did you want to start with? The scarf?”

She replied, “No, I really like the purse.”

YAAAAAAAAAY!

A new knitter and she’s starting with a purse! It’s really not that much different than a scarf - knit a rectangle - but the finishing is what turns it into a purse. It’s a snazzy little purse too. Including some garter stitch rows, mostly stockinette, and a really long strap to make it ultra-cool.

After she spent some time reading through the book, we suggested that if she opened it and wanted to get started on her project we would help.

One thing I questioned about this book - the included yarn is in hanks/skeins not balls, so Ingrid and I showed her how to wind up the yarn into a ball by hand. (Ingrid was great about being the yarn holder. I do have a picture, but will have to post it tomorrow). When I left she had a few rows done and was making great progress. I hope she shows up againso we can see her purse and help her if needed.

So all of you that didn’t show up for knitting that day - look what you missed! :)