Skill Sets

Last Saturday, I did a follow up class for the crochet project I taught at my LYS.  The students who showed up quickly focused on the task at hand and I walked each individually through the final steps that they needed to learn in order to finish up their projects.  During our previous class times, a couple of my students were fairly vocal in expressing their frustrations.  They are all terrific knitters and found that switching to crochet where a dc means double crochet, not decrease and sk means skip, not a misprinted ssk, was awkward. 

But they toughed it out.  One of the students even said, "I don't know why I'm doing this." 

And another one answered, "I'm doing this because even if I can knit most anything, crochet adds to my skill sets so that's why I'm here."

Spoken like a true IT teacher. 

But still, I think she nailed it with that statement.  Sometimes, you have to do something new in knitting just because you haven't done it before and mastering a new technique (or trying to) keeps it interesting.  And, I always think that you should revisit old skills that have not been tested in a while and brush them up.

And, since the stealth project on size 13 needles is making my wrists ache, I found something to lighten the load.  And, it's a project that has me brushing up a skill that I haven't used in ages:

Fair Isle -Selbu Modern by kate Gagnon, free pattern (pdf) here.  I'm using two skeins of Koigu that have been rolling around my stash forever.  Right now, I have less than 20 rounds to go so I could be wearing this hat tomorrow.  Tonight is Music Department Concert night for #1 Son, a scheduled 90 minutes that really means 4 hours, so only plain knitting will work later.

I'm so glad that this all fell into place, I need a distraction from a pile of WIP's that need taming, as much as I need a nice roomy hat that won't make my head itch. 

Who knows where this will lead, I'm already pondering resurrecting Donegal, I'm considering Hairpin Lace or Tunsian Crochet, I may attempt a Mobius or Brioche stitch. 

It's also distracting me from thinking about #2 Son's 13th Birthday tomorrow, two teenagers?  How'd that happen?

Comments

[AllyB]

Hey Joan! Thanks for the link to the hat pattern. I love Fair Isle and will be giving this a try after the holidays. Speaking of which, I hope yours are Merry and Bright!

[kmkat]

I have found that as long as you keep feeding them, they keep growing. I tried NOT feeding them, but that did not work. They knew where to find the refrigerator and pantry. And now they are grown.

[Suzanne V. (Yarnhog)]

My mom had a rule: when one of her kids approached 13, she told us we could either be 12 for another year, or 14 a year early, but she wasn't having any 13 year olds in the house.

[Alison]

It's fun watching you knit your Fair Isle project. I have something similar on the needles right now and it's been in time out for several weeks now. I don't know how our children grow up so quickly. When they were really young I thought time really slowed down, some days I had to check the clock to make sure it was moving forward. All of a sudden my daughters are grown young women (except the baby)and living out in this big world as adults. Once the boys hit high school with all those activities their lives only accelerate! Hop on and enjoy the ride!

[Carrie K]

It's fun to learn (even though I loathe the learning curve. My side of the curve? Bottom left. Oh well. Live and learn.) Those are perfect complementary colors. Me like. Do you pick out the stitchmarkers to match too or is that just me?

Two teenagers? My, my. Happy Birthday to Son #2!

[Carrie]

I was just pondering, on my way home from the doctor, why any human lives through his/her teenage years. I hope your boys are exceptions to the rule.
That is a lovely lovely hat.

[Cookie]

I agree. Continuing to learn is a huge part of life. As knitters, if we don't keep learning new tricks, we'll end up knitting the same hat over and over again. (I'm doing that because I want to, btw. Not because it's my only hat pattern. :p) Oddly enough, I didn't have any trouble going from crochet to knitting. I think crochet is a must for all knitters. If for nothing more than cast ons and picking up dropped stitches.

When are you sending me some WIPs to work on? I've got nothing on the needles right now.

/ducks

xo

[CindyCindy]

It is lovely. Your "skill sets" constantly amaze me. And, everyone needs a spiffy hat in winter.

[Nora]

Funny! I was just hearing about this hat on a podcast this morning, and I couldn't figure out what the woman was saying! Now I know, and it looks just lovely! Love the colors.