It's a Start....

So Knitting Club is up and running. It was quite tricky--we had 8 people show up, 5 were total newbies, 1 just needed a few reminders and was going quite well on her own, 1 is left-handed and people had tried to teach her before without success, and 1 knits a little but not well (she was working on a scarf when I started subbing at the school in October. It's now about 5 inches long and has lots of holes in it. But she likes to talk a lot about how quickly she learned and how good she is! Sigh....not that helpful to the other newbies, I'm afraid).

So I was frantically running from one to the next sorting out problems and demonstrating things over and over. I spent some time working with the leftie to help her find a way that's comfortable for her--showed her a couple of options, told her to play around and practice until she figures out what works for her. After all the discussions on the AY forum about how differently people hold their knitting, etc., I was very careful to tell them all to feel free to develop their own style as they go along. I gave them all a handout with a few illustrations and the URLs of some websites (like knittinghelp.com) so they can practice on their own over the next week. I know they all found it really hard and frustrating, but I'm hoping they stick with it a little longer and see if they end up liking it.

We had several people who hadn't expressed an interest show up, and several who had didn't make it today....we'll see if they come out next week. I loaned out all of the sets of needles & yarn I brought with me, though, so it was the perfect number for today. I may have to go buy a few more if more people want to come next week! :-) These are the needles all cast on for them in advance:

I wish I had brought my camera to school today to show you the after--they were all over the place! :-) Next week I think they'll make lots of progress, so I'll have to take some piccies then.

And, as promised, here is my latest FO--the baby cardi. The booties were some I had made quite some time ago for a friend's baby, but they were too small on her, so I saved them. Now they can go to good use as part of a matching set!

And finally....1 of my current WIPs, a scarf in Square Lattice for my BIL. It's a larger version of the one I made for my nephew for Christmas, and apparently Daddy is very eager to get his own. I'm aiming to finish it by Sunday. I think I'm 2/7s there, so wish me luck! :-)