Labor Day Knitters

Labor day weekend has arrived and with it, we hope there is going to be some rain.  We have, after 55 days over 100F had the temperatures to drop into the high 80s and low 90s.  I noticed the road crews were back to work during the day a little.  They say in Texas we have two seasons:  Summer and Road Construction.  That has certainly been true this summer.  Labor Day weekend always means so much no matter where I've lived or what the seasons have been like.  The first thing it means is no more white clothing or shoes and all the cowboys change from straw hats to felt or pelt hats. The biggest thing about Labor day weekend is that it has always represented the end of summer, albeit informally.

My Family and I are going to stay with friends this weekend.  I have been asked to teach a couple people how to knit.  I was flattered and I told them I was a newish knitter but I thought casting on, knit and purl, YO, etc could be easily taught by a noob.  Then I started thinking....how did I learn to knit? I can tell you it was not from making swatches and gauges, phoowee on that!

I taught myself to knit which has numerous downfalls in and of itself.  I started with a small pamphlet style book that was really great and from which I made my first hat and scarf.  They turned out nice.  It gave great advice so I've bought 2 of these books to give to my friends this weekend as well as 2 sets of 6.5mm 10" (25mm) needles. I found mine which I've had since I was 14 (given to me by my Aunt Olga). I also bought several skeins of the yarn it suggests, which I didn't always do and which caused numerous beginners mistakes. 

I also found that U-Tube has really good tutorials on things the book didn't show me like how to pick and knit stitches.  Now to those of you that have been knitting a long time, how did you learn to pick up and knit?  That was one of the most frustrating things I have ever encountered.  What the heck does that mean, I wondered through clenched teeth! My first attempt came with the Antje Gillingham book Knitting Circles Around Socks. Holy buckets, Bat Man!!!  She has fantastic instruction, loads of pictures on how to do everything...except "pick up and knit."  Arrrrrggghhh!  OK I survived the pick up and knit.  My first socks turned out really great in spite of me.

I've put the things to teach with in a bag, I've packed up what I'm taking to work on, what else do I need?  I am pondering...

I hope you all have a nice end of summer no matter where you live.  I'll be watching the kids in the pool and NASCAR racing and, of course, I'll be knitting.