Tag Archives: teaching

Fairisle February 2015, Week 2

This week, members of the fairisle course had their first chance to STEEK!  Yes, we did.  We cut through our knitting.  And, we did it with impunity!  Hahah! (snip, snip, snip!)

Here are some photos from class...



I love their color choices!  Check out those beautiful palettes!



I was able to make some fairisle swatches using the knitting machine, and I am fairly certain it's what helped many overcome their fear of cutting through their knitting.  Amanda might recognize this yarn if she looks closely... thanks, Amanda!


Lots of students even decided to go the traditional route instead of doing the crochet support.  I think this group was especially motivated to cut their knitting.


WIP: Prepping for Fairisle February!

This past month, I've been working on a fairisle pattern and accompanying hand-out for a class I'm teaching on traditional fairisle techniques.  I've taught the class twice before, but I was taking over someone else's class after they were too sick to teach.  The orginal instructor had chosen a very thin yarn to do the colorwork, but now that I'm teaching it again I asked to switch to a thicker yarn.  Here is where Rowan Fine Tweed steps in.  It's pre-felted, slubby, thick/thin colorful yarn, and best of all, it's tweedy!!  I love tweedy yarns.

I'm getting back into the knitted swing of things, and warming up by writing a new fairisle pattern replete with oodles of simple motifs and steeks!

So far, here's my progress with this little vest...

First my swatch using the least used colors (two of the contrasting colors)...


Then once I configured my numbers, I designed the schematic for the vest and cast-on.  Since this one is steeked, I cast on in the round with extra steek sts at the center front...


Halfway through, I realized my row gauge had relaxed and I re-configured my numbers to be sure that the lengths would work out.


Then, after washing/blocking, I steeked the center sts! 



 The tweedy felted yarn won't just unravel, so I knew it would be okay to knit from the steeked edges.  I'll post photos when I get the photos onto the computer...

...and if you're in Munich in February, and are interested in learning fairisle techniques, be sure to sign up for my class at die Mercerie!


Sundays are for Swatching

I have felt a bit aimless in my knitting lately. I have been knitting a lot of simple things, stockinette socks, stockinette sweaters, garter stitch bags. While all of them are relatively easy, they are all also relatively simple. I like a good simple knitting project for stressful times, when the hands just need to be producing and the mind needs to be relaxing. I will still tell you, if you ask, that a plain stockinette sock is the best relaxation knitting in the world. But every now and then, there comes a point where a woman needs just a little more to do. Taking on the Pearl Street Pullover was part of that. I have never done a cabled sweater before, and I am enjoying the heck out of it, even if I am afraid I am going to run out of yarn. I think it was also my motivation for the ill-fated moth man scarf I blogged about last time. Ill-fated? Yes, it is already in hibernation. I have a record with lace yarn and it seems I am doomed never to ever finish a project made out of it. I think I need to come to terms with the fact that I am a cable and color girl, and that while the occasional lace is nice, I prefer the solid to the dainty.

Which brings me to today’s topic. You see, I have plans. Big plans. Plans that almost scare me a little bit when I think about it too much.


This is the pile of things I am going to work on today, because it’s Sunday, and if I can’t sit on my butt and knit all day, I don’t know what else Sunday is for. In the middle you see the beginnings of a sock. This is my control project. A simple pair of stockinette socks on the needles that I can pick up when my brain needs a break from all the new things.


This particular pair of socks are my little brother’s birthday present. (His birthday was a month ago, but I am consoled by the fact that it has been 100 or more degrees every day since then and he wouldn’t have worn them anyway.) They are some self-striping t-rex yarn that he picked out of my shop. He might have just turned twenty, but I am proud to say he couldn’t pass up having Air Bender inspired socks.

Why do I need a control project you ask? Well, mostly because I made two knitting decisions in the last week that prove I have obviously gone quite insane. Two things happened to me last week. I stumbled across Ann Budd’s blog where she challenged herself to knit every sock in her Sock Knitting Master Class book. Second, I was finishing up teaching my beginners sock knitting class, and was thinking what other knitting classes I should schedule for the fall. Some how, the amalgamation of these two ideas in my work-stressed brain led me to make two very ill-conceived decisions. One, I need to learn more knitting skills so that I can be a better knitting teacher, therefore I too shall knit through the sock knitters master class, and blog about it. Two, I will teach a sweater knitting class, because I love knitting sweaters and would like to pass the bug along. Of course, the pattern I chose, O W L S, I have never knit before. I don’t feel comfortable teaching something I have never done, therefore I need to knit this sweater. I don’t have any illusions about knitting it all before the class starts, especially given my insane sock undertaking, but I would like to stay at least one step ahead of my students.


The yarn I am going to use for O W L S is just some knitpicks Wool of the Andes Bulky I bought ages ago. I have a ton of this stuff laying around. I am not sure what my plans were anymore, but I have enough of this steely grey color for a sweater. Today I am swatching for the sweater.


I am also swatching with this lovely golden protoceratops sock yarn for the first pair of socks in The Sock Book (this might be how I refer to the Sock Knitting Master Class for the duration of the project.) I do have to confess, that I have not swatched for socks since probably the second pair of socks I knit. I have not had a problem thus far, but I figure when socks are patterned and offer different sizes, it might be prudent to get a good idea of what my sock gauge even is these days.

First up is Assymetrical Cables by Cookie A. Wish me luck.

The last day

How do you say goodbye to a profession you have loved for 36 years? That's how long I have been teaching college courses in the study of religion and philosophy. And now it was time to say goodbye. I was worried it would be anticlimactic, or one of those days when the students were stressed and ornery, or I would cry in front of everyone. I've pretty much said what I had to say to my students, though every semester I wake up a week later and say, "Oh, but I forgot to talk about ..." something or other that I thought it was vital to discuss. (I'm handling that problem by my new blog "Dangling Conversation" that will be a place for former and future students to talk things over.)

So, to manage the last day of teaching, I gave a test in philosophy class and had a special event planned for religion and society. One of my favorite courses through the years was "Native American Religion and Culture" which was created out of student demand and interest. I learned a lot about the cultures of the 500 native nations that were here on Turtle Island (North America) at the time of contact. One thing I learned about I wanted to do on this day.

In many native nations, when it is time to celebrate a change in your life, you have a giveaway. I had much to give away in gratitude for many great years of teaching and learning at Gallaudet University. And, I'm kind of a pack rat (please don't alert the Clean House people) so I had collected lots of craft supplies and toys and stuff they give away at information tables. And earrings I don't wear any more and office decorations that it's time to move to a new home. So I brought in a large basket full of gifts, and each student was able to choose a few.

Then we had a talking circle with a feather I had added rainbow seed beads to years ago. (Just to alert those who are worried about such things, it was a genuine imitation eagle feather, originally grown on a domestic turkey and painted to look like a bald eagle tail feather.) We passed the feather around the circle and each spoke. The rules are that the person with the feather gets to speak, and no one else interrupts. If you don't want to speak you can pass the feather to the next person. We talked about what we want to let go of and what we want to include in our lives in the next year.

I said that I wanted to let go of stress and embrace creativity. Simple, right? Well, we shall see. But I did sleep extraordinarily well last night. The class ended beautifully with us thanking each other for a good semester and hopes for continued learning for all of us. I did tear up a little, but I don't think anyone noticed.

You should know that I have had a unique job teaching religion and philosophy in sign language at Gallaudet University. For many years, I was the only person in the world with that position, though now there are others on campus taking the torch for the next leg of the run. My students are all deaf and hard of hearing, with the occasional hearing student thrown in to make it interesting. Everyone communicates in sign language in the classroom and on campus. I guess I have to say my students were all deaf and hard of hearing. I am retiring, after all.

Next week I finish grading (the hardest part of being a professor) and cleaning out my office, and my friends are having a party to say goodbye to me. Not that I'm going anywhere. I'm right here, getting ready for whatever is next!