My First Knitting Pupil!

I had a couple of friends over yesterday, which was really nice. While Emily and Katy hid in the kitchen and painted their nails, Amy and I decided to get crafty. She noticed my Scrunchable Scarf I'm knitting in the corner of the room, and said "Wow, you're really good at knitting. I can only do the one thing - knit." I got a sudden urge of excitement. "Aw thank you, well... I can teach you if you like..." "Oh, yes please!"

I did a quick fist pump, ran up the stairs (which I shouldn't do. And Mum if you're reading this, I'm sorry.) and did a knee slide across the floor to my yarn box (or, the rectangularcubething for any of you who were reading on Friday). In all the excitement of having my own victim pupil, I pulled out some white cotton (which says it is Aran weight but it is really DK) and a pair of 7mm plastic needles. Which really didn't work, as the needles were  far too big for the yarn. Meaning it looked holey (is that even a word?!), when it should have been nice and neat. 

I decided to teach her Purl, which when teamed with Knit meant that she could do stocking stitch! She just absorbed everything I said and showed her, which was great! She learnt to purl incredibly quickly and was soon asking to learn something else.

We then plodded downstairs, popped Gnomeo and Juliet on in the DVD Player (which was a gift from my Nan when she was clearing out. So much easier to use than an old PS2, thank you Nan!) and I taught her to cast on. 

As with Purl, she learnt how to cast on very quickly. She saw me knitting my scarf and said, "Hey, can I learn to do that stitch you're using for the scarf?" "Of course, I should have thought of it earlier. It is very easy. Simply knit 2, purl 1. Then repeat."

I showed her a row of the k2, p1 and then she had a go herself. For this she used a pair of 4mm bamboo needles (which she found a lot easier to use, stitches don't slip around so easily) and some cheap acrylic. Stylecraft DK in Yellow, to be exact.

She got a little stuck every now and again, but in the whole she did really well. During the rest of the day, wherever she went, so did her knitting. So we may see another knitter coming into the world! :e

I gave her the 4mm needles and DK yarn for her to practice with, as all she had at home was some split-prone cotton, which isn't very good to learn with. In the end, our knitty day looked a little something like this! Minus the chocolate wrappers and nail polish.

Click to enlarge.

It was a lovely day and I hope we can do it again soon. I can't leave without showing you Katy's nails. She borrowed Emily's cracked nail polish (unsure of the brand, sorry) and I just think the end result is fab!

Check out other crafty posts over at Make Something Mondays, Craft-O-Maniac Mondays, More the Merrier Mondays and Made by You Monday. 

FO Friday: Washcloths, Washcloths, and look! More Washcloths!

As you will probably know, last week I started my new washcloth addiction. I don't know why it took me so long to find washcloths, but I'm very happy that I finally did. I haven't felt like doing much knitting during the past two weeks so having these little guys (oh gosh, I'm starting to refer to them as people now, I really need to get a life!) around to pick up and knit is very handy. And enjoyable.

My first ever washcloth, was knitted using the famous pattern Grandmother's Favourite. There isn't much point on me telling you how lovely the pattern is, as I think the 4,973 projects on Ravelry say it all. (And no, I didn't count. I'm not that obsessed. Yet...) I used Craft Cotton in Ecru by V & A Products Ltd, which is an 100% Cotton, Aran weight yarn. The yarn is nice to work with, it doesn't split easily like other cotton yarns I've tried (what am I saying? The only other cotton yarn I've tried is Sugar N Cream!). The only critism I have for this yarn, is not of the yarn itself but the packaging! On the ball band it doesn't tell you how many grams there are and also the yardage/meterage of the yarn. 

Back to the washcloth. 

I really enjoyed knitting it, the pattern is lovely and I'm quite pleased with the end result. (I say 'quite' as I'm pretty, no, definitely sure I messed up the last part of the cloth.)

The moment this was cast off, I cast on my second washcloth. This time round I decided to use the Waffle Knit Dishcloth pattern by Debbie Andriulli. For this cloth I decided to use Lily Sugar'N Cream Stripes: Pinky, as I was knitting this for my niece (who is in a constant need for washcloths apparently - yay!) I thought I better use a colour she loves, which turns out to be pink and thus Sugar'N Cream was chosen.

I really enjoyed knitting this cloth, the yarn pooled great and fortunately (after a confirmation from RugbyMad) you can't see the little mistakes I've made in the cloth. When I was casting off the cloth, I impulsively decided to make a loop so you can hang it up in the shower etc, which I think I've done right, I'll find out soon enough. 

Mum loved it - she reckons it would make a nice blanket square. Katy loved it too, even commissioning me to make her one exactly the same. 

The last thing I have to share with you is a photograph...

Yes that's right, Keith and his friend Minion came to pay me a visit! I say 'pay a visit', they actually snook into the house to watched Tangled on our big telly. As you can tell from Keith's expression he was shocked when he found out that Mother Gothel wasn't really Rapunzel's mother.

For more FO Friday fun, head on over to Tami's, Natural Suburbia and Wisdom Begins in Wonder, have a lovely weekend!!