So you had a bad day...

During school today my students were getting a little crazy. We had a sit-down chat about the natural consequences, wasting time, etc. When I asked their opinion on the matter, one student (who gets an A!) said, "Yeah, it also wastes Miss Maggie's time. I mean, last night she probably spent a couple of hours preparing for today and now it is a waste of her time. She could have done something else with her time." "You know what, " I reply," you are right! I didn't even think of that! I could have curled up with a nice cup of tea and a book." "Or your knitting! You need to work on your knitting too."

It is official, I'm a knitter!

Turning my oops into an oooo...

Last night was our house-warming party. My roommate and I have lived in our apartment for over 4 months but we have only recently finished furnishing the apartment. It was a great party for sure, because today I woke up exhausted. I knew that it was the perfect day to pick up my neglected knitting and get my stitch on. I have been avoiding my project because I got to the point where I needed to add a new color. This doesn't seem like a problem but I knew it might take a little more effort than usual, so that first stripe of my scarf has been sitting lonely for about a week.

I decided nothing would be more soothing than getting another stripe on my scarf. I watched a few youtube videos (really, I am not sure if I would be able to knit without youtube!) and referenced my Stitch n Bitch. Badda boom, badda bing, we have color!

As I happily continued in my knitting I thought, "That was sooo easy!" And then I realized that while I was paying all this attention to the color change, I was not paying attention to how many rows I was knitting. I had never finished knitting my first "stripe" and as a result, my first stripe was too short. So now I had to think like a teacher. I always teach my kids to work with their mistakes and turn them into something amazing. (We say, "Turn your oops into an ooooo!" Cheesy, I know.) Should I make all my rows that thin? Or should I try alternating widths? Or maybe start all over? This was a helluva lot more work than I wanted to put into it. So now my knitting goes back to the basket, waiting for another day when I have the energy to make these types of artistic decisions. I can't even imagine what will start to happen when I catch up to the zoolander knitting lessons!

meet the zoolander of knitting.....

so i decided not to finish my "ribbed for her pleasure scarf." i got pretty far w it, but ill be honest w ya. i still have not made it to the knitting store (which happens to be in stitch 'n bitch on page241 and also happens to be around the corner from my apartment. ha). so instead of completing a scarf, i made a scarfette, long enough to be wrapped around the neck and buttoned closed so that it could still be useful. but, because i havent yet learned how to make a button hole, i erased it to move on to my next lesson....

...increasing and decreasing. ugh. this has to be the hardest thing i have done so far. harder than learning how to cast on- which was ridic when i tried to do that the first time! so im working my way through the steps- which really should be accompanied by more pics but i digress- trying all the different techniques to increase and decrease. i couldnt get how to do the bar increase, but i remembered from the cute slipper pattern from my momma that i needed a m1, which i had no idea what it was when i originally read the pattern. but now i know. m1 is "make one increase." woo hoo! i not only remembered what it was called but how to do it! so i increased the shit out of my swatch, smiling every time i started a new, longer row.

so i continued on with tonights lessons. the next lesson in increasing is the yarn over- lame name- so i read the description. something about large gaps in my knitting?? NEXT! homie dont play that. i get that sometimes you may want to make something resembling a doily, but not me, not now. so i started to read how to decrease. i thought this would be easy. i can make something longer, how could i possibly not make anything shorter?! so i started knitting and decreasing, or what i thought was decreasing. but i was wrong. instead of getting shorter, my rows were just getting a big ol bump. and thats when i realized it- im the zoolander of knitting. i can increase, but i cant decrease! (for those not in the know, zoolander is the story of one of the worlds top males models who is really, really, ridiculously good looking but cant turn left! gasp! i now know how he feels. )

so for now im going to go back to just making rows get longer and longer. and hopefully at some point, making them get shorter will just come naturally. if zoolander can learn to turn left, i can decrease a row!

i am 32 stiches and then some

yeah! i finally got my knitting out! i found my super cute pink knitting bag w my awesome stich n bitch inside as well as my super cute and trendy bamboo knitting needles. and surprise! there was something on my needles!

normally this would be great. i would be thatmuch closer to getting a project done. but there was a problem...i dont remember what i was knitting. i remember working on the "knit your heart out" swatch on page 55 and swore that had to be it. swoooore. seemed the right size and it looked like something was going on that might be a knit 1 purl 1 heart? wrong! apparently the last time i knit something, i was super awesome and had moved onto a ribbed scarf. a beautiful ribbed scarf. a ribbed scarf that was probably about 32 stiches- not the 23 i did according to the "knit your heart out" chart.

so this brings me to my life lesson of the day. recycle. while my sista in LA found a super cute yarn shop to help her w her projects, i apparently have decided not to do that. is it not more economical and earth friendly just to erase every finished project so you can start something new? thats the only way to explain how i did not save my heart swatch which lead to me ruining my perfect cable knit scarf start which lead to ripping out the whole thing, putting it back in its bag, throwing said bag under a blanket and getting a glass of scotch.

which leads right into life lesson #2- always have a drink handy!

My To-Do List

I spent all day yesterday gathering baskets, bags and boxes of wool.

The purpose was to inventory my unfinished objects and see what yarn I had gathered over the years. Two big discoveries

• I only have 3 unfinished projects left!


• I have a lot of yarn around here!
  

The projects include the last half of a pair of socks I started last summer. This is why I don't usually knit socks - I get bored with the second one! I just need to turn the heel and finish it off.

The second project is a sweater that I'm making out of handspun merino. It's beautiful,

but I do have a bit more spinning to do before I can finish.

The third project is a never-ending afghan. It was my attempt to learn how to do cables this past summer.

To add to the list, yesterday I received in the mail all the yarn I ordered to complete the French Press Knit Felted Slippers for my many nieces!

It looks like a lot, but it is so nice to have it all organized and ready to go.

My goal this week - finish that darn sock!

love, marmie

If you can't make a mistake, you can't make anything!

Since I began knitting a week ago I have found it to be quite addicting. Unfortunately, that addiction hasn't played out into creating things, just thinking about knitting! Because of my job as a teacher, if I don't have a project started on a weekend, I find I just don't have time to start one during the week. Instead of my weeknights consisting of learning to purl and switch colors, they became filled with planning lessons, emailing parents, grading papers, etc. However, I did bring my new found joy of knitting into the classroom! I used learning to knit as an analogy for learning to write realistic fiction, something my students are working on now. I was proud of myself when I told them that writing a story idea is similar to knitting your first swatch. You want to test it out and see what it looks like before you dive right into a big project, or full-fledged fiction story. Bonus points for me when I drew a picture of casting on and my first swatch as a demonstration. I think this week I will bring in the real knitting for them to see!

Despite my constant thinking of knitting, I was sad to not have a project to work on this past week. I made it my goal to start my scarf this weekend so that I could just pick it up for a few minutes every night this week. So last night, as my boyfriend and I put in Tyson (documentary about the boxer) and opened a couple of beers, I sat down, needles in hand, raring to go. I was annoyed when after knitting almost the entire first color I made a mistake, dropped a stitch, and unsuccessfully tried to fix it. I "erased" the whole thing and tried again, this time making some other mistake in only 4 rows. I grew very frustrated and decided to just put everything aside until I could focus all my attention on my knitting. The good news is, I am a professional at casting on and I now have another analogy for my students! I told them at the beginning of the year that "If you can't make a mistake, you can't make anything." (A quote from someone, but I can't remember who...) So into the classroom this anecdote will go.

Knitting is on the to-do list for today and hopefully things will go better. Marmie, advice for when you find a dropped stitch??

A Swatch Was Made

After a trip to Joann's I finally got all the supplies I needed, including a basket to hold all my new yarn. I sat down with my book in hand, youtube at ready, and started my first cast on. This was probably the most difficult part for me as a beginner. After I got ten stitches I "erased" the whole thing and "casted on" a couple more times to get the hang of it. Twenty stitches wide, 30 rows long and now I have my very first swatch. It's Stitch'n Bitch, and I helped! Next project...a scarf. I plan on changing the color of my yarn as well so this should be tricky!

Happy New Year

So I finally got my girls to try knitting. Why? It's not so that I don't feel obligated to keep them in scarves, hats and other wonderful wooly creations! I believe it so I can pass along the conduit to that wonderful feeling of accomplishment when you see someone you love wearing something you create. With each of them living on opposite coasts and me somewhere in the middle, it seems like the best way - and I love that they thought of it first!



For so many of us, we leave our daily jobs with no feeling of accomplishment - nothing to show for the hours and sweat put into our 9-5. Knitting allows me to feel the high that only comes from the tactile, the tangible, the "wrap it around you and sigh" accomplishment of creating. This is what I want to pass on to my daughters.



My personal challenge for 2010? To finish all the UFO's ("unfinished objects" in knit-speak), to challenge myself with more difficult patterns, and to design a sweater from spinning to knitting. Can I do it? That's why I'm here, because I will never hear the end of it from my dear girls if I don't make the effort!



Goal one - inventory all UFOs and bullet-point what needs to be done to finish each one. Oh yeah, to also learn how to post pictures!



love, marmie

Always know the price of your yarn!

I started my journey toward becoming a master knitter by stopping by a local craft store to pick up some yarn. Apparently it is just a craft store that looks cute but has no real knitting supplies. After trekking to 3 more stores I finally landed in The Little Knittery, a local store that not only had beautiful yarn and knitting needles, but also Stitch'n Bitch, the book that will hopefully guide me through my first few projects. I was beaming with pride as I placed my three beautiful skeins of alpaca wool, from Cascade yarns in Seattle (woohoo!), on the counter. However, my joy turned to alarm when the cashier told me the total cost for my first "little" project. (Too much to even mention here!) I am sure the other customers near me could see my face flush but I sucked it up as my first lesson in knitting, always know the price of your yarn! My plan is to save my outrageously expensive yarn for a special project and go to Joann's for some reasonably priced yarn. I just did a quick search and found that the closest Joann's is right down the road from the Little Knittery so I am heading there to get my real first project yarn. Either way, here is a picture of my first purchases, ready to be whipped into something beautiful...just not right now! (And my curious cat, Nikolas James Pumpkinhead inspecting the new additions to our family here in LA.)

-Maggie

The Resolution

In 2010, we Howe women will take on a New Year's Resolution to knit, knit, knit. Spread all across the United States, our mother and daughter trio will embark on a year of pushing our knitting to a new level. One a beginner, one an intermediate, and one a talented knitter/spinner/artist, we will stay in touch and improve our talent of knitting!

The goal - to summon delightful creations from our fingers and to encourage, drag, and pull each other new levels so that on December 31, 2010, we can toast to our success!

So here is a quick rundown on who we are and why you should care. We’ll stop at the top with our Marmie and top knitter. For years our mom has magically- and literally- spun up beautiful woolen surprises. From the strawberry hats I remember her making for everyone we knew,

to the felted slippers she whipped up just this past Christmas,

Marm has been delighting us with her knitting and spinning since we can remember.

Next we have Maggie, the newbie to knitting. If anything, this girl’s got moves...

...but maybe not knitting skills, I guess that’s what we will find out. Instead of crafting beautiful things out of wool, Mags has been crafting the minds of children. Shes's a teacher so she also makes beautiful things out of cotton balls and finger paints and I would like to be the first one to wish her good luck in this endeavor. And also offer props on her cottonball snowman last year.

Finally, we have me. What more can I say besides Cheers to JJ!

I have knitted before. I made a super long pink rectangle that I call a scarf. Does that make me an intermediate knitter? I’m not so sure, but I guess it makes me a non-beginner. I can also whip up a mean quilt and paint someone else’s nails like you wouldn’t believe. I know, I too am surprised that you don’t know me yet.

So why should you care? I’m still thinking about that. But I assume it’s the same reason I care about other peoples’ blogs: because you are sitting at work with nothing else to do.

So let the new year begin!