First Meeting of my Southern CA Knitters

My little group of friends (Bunnie and Kitty in the above picture) met for the first time to (re)learn how to knit. They are all making the candle flame shawl by Debra Bright using various lace weight yarn from KnitPicks. Only two of the original three were able to make it on Saturday, but we gained another member from the group they work with. So now our group has 4 learners.

When they first arrived, I realized that I had not brought my ball winder or swift, so the first thing they had to do was learn how to wind a ball of yarn from the hank. Then they spent the rest of the time learning how to do the long tail cast on (97 stitches) and knitting their first 18 rows of the shawl. We had a wonderful 4.5 hours laughing and learning together.

I learned multiple things in this process. Never assume anyone will come with their patterns printed off. Luckily for me I had one of them print off extra copies. Two remember to bring a ball winder and swift. It's a long process to get everyone a ball of their lace weight yarn balled up when there is an odd number of people present. Three what seems obvious to you will not be to others.Today we worked at fixing dropped stitches and knit two together's that happened while they knitted on Sunday. One has her first 18 rows completed and will be starting the actual lace pattern. The other has a few more rows to go before starting the lace. However, Foxy joined us today with her yarn, so Bunnie helped Foxy learn how to ball her yarn. After work I'll be helping Foxy learn how to cast on and knit.

As for my knitting, I finished my Caricia shawl using Damsel Imagination Hand Painted yarn. I only used 2.3 balls of my yarn, because the remaining 2/3rds of one skein was so bleached out looking that it looked awful on the shawl. So I tinked 5 rows out and bound off and made the medium sized shawl. It's smaller than I originally wanted, but I like it. I will say it's warm. I wore it to work today and ended up taking it off in the office I'm in. The AC is out and it was extremely hot wearing the alpaca.

I now am working on a pair of Wanida socks by Cookie A. using Paca Peds Mixed Berries colorway. I've already frogged the socks twice, so hopefully I will finally get them into socks. Otherwise, they'll be like the Damsel yarn and find a new project.

-Myrtle