Reporting in...

But first, I think that the scarf your sil made is beautiful! I'm with you...now I want to try Entrelac, but my WIP list is already out of control.

So, Saturday's class on the Fair Isle-type hat. First, as a demonstration of how nervous I was about this, I should tell you about the nightmare that got me out of bed an hour early! I dreamt that after I got all of the students assembled and settled down a bit, the room seemed really full, and there were a lot of faces I didn't recognize. I did a quick head count...30. That can't be right, try again....30. Third try...30.

Now, we had 7 people signed up for this class. And it makes a difference because we were supplying the yarn in a kit, included in the price of the class as a materials fee. If an individual had bought skeins of yarn for this hat, it would have cost over $120. Sure, you can get four hats from that yarn, but who wants to sink that much money into yarn for a class? So the owners wound the skeins into smaller balls and made kits, so that students got the yarn for one hat for $30. However, splitting 18 skeins into 72 balls took them most of a whole day. So, in my dream, having 23 extra people show up was a true nightmare!!

Fortunately, when I got to the store, that did not happen. I taught the second session of a mitten class, and then gathered my SEVEN students and began. I "gently shoved them off a cliff!" I read them excerpts from your post & comments so that they knew their lives were about to change! I had to laugh tho that you had to tell me to have them purl with their right hand. I'm so used to doing it with my left that it hadn't occurred to me. What I told them was to carry the blue yarn in the hand you usually use and purl the way you normally do.

There were some tense moments (every so often I would have them put down their needles and take a deep breath!!) but in the end, everyone had at least 1/2 of the ribbing done and several people were starting the pattern rows. Even those who were doubtful after the first half a round had settled in to a sense of "Ok, I can do this." Nancy, our most creative knitter (that's who you should talk to about color - she is amazing!) was pretty uncomfortable being boxed in doing a pattern. We all encouraged her that if she makes this hat, following the directions, she will have a new skill that she can use to do amazing things. I can't wait to see what she'll do!!

So, all in all, I think it was a successful class! Thanks for your advice and encouragement....I really appreciate it.

Keep knitting,

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)