How fair!

This past week, Bill and I ventured out to Watertown to go to the Jefferson County Fair

In order to get from out parking spot to the fairground we had to ride the tram:


once there we went directly to the animal exhibits.

There were cows (no pictures, because I am a bad blogger)

Sheep:


Goats:


Pigs:


And piglets:


Adorable bunnies:




Chickens:


Ducks:


Geese:


And goslings:



then we headed inside to check out the craft exhibits.

Along the way we saw several scarecrows, for the scarecrow competition. This was our favorite.
I think it's supposed to be a bunny, but it looked a lot like our American Eskimo Dog, Cayenne, so we called it an Eskicrow.



Once to the crafts exhibit I had a wonderful surprise,
Socks!


But not just any socks, these socks were knit by one of the wonderful ladies that attended my sock class, and these are the socks she knitted afterwards using techniques I taught her!

How awesome! I'm so proud!

Then, not only were there the above socks, but there were these as well:


Socks she knit using the yarn I gave her for the class!


After all the excitement it was almost time to go home. But not before the traditional fair fare:


Taffy and steaming hot salt potatoes!

Yum!

sock graduation

last night was the last night of sock class!
everything went so well, I'm so happy and proud of all my students! :D

last time I had given them homework to knit a small sock, and while some people had a few problems, everybody ended up understanding what was going on.
we did the math of gauge, negative ease, and the perfect fit last night, I was most nervous about this part, but everybody got it, quick as lightening and there were no problems! I'm so happy!

And at the end everybody got their certificates of achievement.

here are my socktacular students

the good girls:


the trouble makers:


I'm so happy the class went well, and that everybody learned stuff, and came away knowing how to make socks work, I'm just floating on air today!
I can't wait until next week when everybody comes to knit night, almost everybody was ready to cast on for their socks, and I can't wait to see what they have going next week!

By Jove I think they've got it!

Sock class is looking up.
Last week there were some timing problems and I think I tried to show them a few things that were just over their heads.

But his week went swimmingly! We started on time, and I was able to show them almost everything I had planned for that class. I decided not to show them everything on the hand outs I had prepared, instead focusing on the ones that were absolutely necessary to move forward, and then leaving the option open for them to request demonstrations of the other techniques later. They seemed to pick up the concepts quickly, and while there were a few doubtful comments of "I don't see how this is supposed to work." it all came out in the end!

I'm really looking forward to next week's class, we'll be covering toes and heels, and I'll be asking them to knit a tiny practice sock. Everybody seemed up beat and confident, and that makes me so happy!

socks, babies and lace

Wow, I really suck at posting, don't I?
Ah, well. I've been busy prepping for my sock class.

The first class was last night, and boy was it interesting!



Before I even left the house my glasses broke, and we couldn't get them fixed so I had to run around and put my contacts in (I badly need new ones, and my vision isn't as clear as I would like with my contacts) so I got there late, but I was still able to get everything set up, but it meant we got off to a later start than I would have liked.

It was fun watching everybody pick out their yarn, everyone trying to match yarn to folder. I hand dyed all the yarn for the class myself.



I did a short lecture on types of sock yarn, and types of socks, and then we got into the thick of things. Tonight was casting on and casting off. There was a little trouble and it took longer than I had anticipated, so I couldn't show them everything I had planned, but everybody learned something new, and they all especially liked the Sew bind off.

It's going to take a little magic on my end to figure out how to teach them everything they missed last night, plus everything for next class as well, but I think we'll manage, I'm just going to have to overhaul my materials.


I haven't just been prepping for class though, I have been knitting!



We recently found out that Bill's cousin is expecting, so I knit up a little Bunny blanket buddy the picture sucks but he's amazingly soft and cuddly. I used TLC Amore, which was a bit of a pain to work with, but soo cuddly.

And I've also started this:



It's the frosted ferns pattern. It was republished by the Spool Cotton Company, but it's a common consensus that it's a reprint of a Herbert Niebling pattern.
I'm using the chart from the Niebling yahoo group, (the written instructions have you break the yarn at one point, which is just silly, the chart fixes that) but the charts were so unreadable that I re-charted them (keeping my fingers crossed that I did it right).

So far so good, there are few spots where I'm not quite happy with my tension, at one point I dropped a couple of stitches, and ended up loosing almost a whole leaf. I had to go back and re knit up the entire section, and that played havoc with my tension on the edges, and there are two sections between leaves where things are a bit loose from where there were gaps from using magic loop (I'm almost afraid to see how bad it would have been if I were using DPN's!) You can be pretty vicious when blocking cotton, so I'm hoping most of the issues will be worked out then.

those socks have CLASS!

knit night was cool as always, there were a lot of new knitters there last night.
also last night I got to announce my super secret plan: I'm going to teach a sock knitting class!

there will not be a 'sock pattern' per se, what I'll be teaching are the several different elements of socks, like different heels and toes and ways of making socks, like toe up or top down or magic loop. then I'll talk about the math of gauge and making socks fit right. once I'm done they should be able to knit any kind of sock they want and way they want. or at least have the knowledge to figure it out on their own.

I finally decided to do this class after the millionth person acted all amazed at how I knit my socks two at once toe up, and how they always fit, and how I always find such pretty patterns. and how they could NEVER do that on their own. I got sick of it, they ARE smart enough, it's just that most of them don't have the internet (and far too much free time) that I do to go out and dig up and read about all these different techniques and figure out what I like and what works for me.

so in this class I will give them a little background, a few different ways things are done, and the ability to take that information and run with it.

it's going to be a two hours once a week for four weeks type of thing, and since all of the practice swatches I'm planning won't take nearly a whole skein I'm going to dye up and bunch of smaller skeins for them to play with, other than that they will only need to buy needles and bring int he normal tools any other knitter has like darning needles and scissors.

I'm totally stoked, I already have all the outlines written up and am working on the handouts, and making swatches in my spare time. kinda sad really since the class won't be until January.