Mind?

It’s terrible to see a season lose it’s mind – poor Spring – one day 85∫, the next night 35∫ – Spring must be going through menopause.

I’m gearing up for classes in Westchester on Monday and at the Connecticut Fiber Festival next weekend – woo hoo! Two of the classes I’m teaching are on lace. I used to hate lace – it was so hard for me and took so much effort to get results that might be great but were quite often just plain iffy.

Then I discovered charts (or, rather, publishers began to use charts more in their patterns) and that made all the difference. I’ve run into more folks who have a hard time with lace instructions because they don’t make decreases in the same way the person writing the instructions does – and if you don’t match your decreases you quite often lose the “skeleton” of the lace – the branches.

More on Left & Right Slanting Decreases…

Odd to think that something so small would make a difference, but for me reading a chart is like speaking in my mother tongue. Reading lace instructions that are written out isn’t impossible, but for my money I’d much rather refer to something pictoral like a chart. Especially if I have my pad of post-its handy!

The knitting meetup on Wednesday at Borders was nice – such a great group – and it was good to meet a new student! Athena’s a doll for being the motivation behind our own little meetup enclave. I’m afraid that the Benadryl I’d taken earlier (Spring = allergies) had me a bit spacier than usual; that, and the lack of sleep this week. Oh well, I guess it’s good to get to know the teacher as a human being, huh?

I’ll be starting a new class – Technique Sampler Bag – on May 3rd at my home at 11:00. It will be a 6 class session over 7 weeks (no class on 5/10) and everyone will make their own tote-style bag in the yarn of their choice (each student provides their own yarn) En route we’ll learn picking up stitches, ribbing, cables, making a pocket, using slipped stitches to define corners, creating a facing, making a buttonhole and fashioning a handle/strap out of twisted cord or i-cord. This is a good class for new knitters and also for experienced knitters.

I love this class, it’s always such a blast. let me know if you’d be interested. If it’s nice we’ll have class outside – I just bought a canopy and we have a nice, green backyard!! Well, we usually do when it’s not below freezing.