In my last post, I mentioned that I took my first knitting class this past Monday and it happened to be taught by
Ann Budd. I first learned about the class from a forum on Ravelry. I messaged the person who posted and asked to get a registration form. Then I emailed me asking if she thought I should take the class. Her response was along the lines of "are you really asking that question? Of course you should take the class from her! And tell her hi from me." I recognized her name from having searched on Amazon for her books for mom but I honestly had no idea who she was, which seems to be how I roll with knitting. I had no idea who Cookie A was until mom signed us up for the club so I had no reason to be intimidated by her socks. You can't be afraid of what you don't know.
Sunday night I will admit to fretting over which yarn to bring to the class. I dug through my stash and found some worsted weight that I didn't really have huge plans for. I had picked it up for free at a yarn swap and while it is lovely and while I do have an idea for it, I don't think that will use all of it. Next I needed needles the right gauge. On that, I struck out, so the next morning I went to a Michael's to pick up some bamboo needles. Why didn't I just got to one of the million local yarn shops in the cities? Because none of them opened until 10 am which is when the class started.
The class was being hosted by the
Minnesota Knitter's Guild. I was vaguely aware of them but haven't really sought out information about them. I know they host something called Yarn Over and that it's probably a good idea to join. In fact, as I write this, I remember being told that if I join before the end of the year, my membership will be covered until the end of next year. Probably a good bargain and not a bad idea overall as the women I met on Monday were all really nice and helpful.
The class was held at the
Textile Center of Minnesota. I had been by here before and had even ventured in once. It's very lovely. Lots of spinning wheels and looms. If my mom ever makes it out to the cities to visit me, we're going to spend a lot of time in their. They also have an amazing library, which I didn't go into. A have a "bad" habit of bringing home more books than I can read from libraries.
Class was held in a large classroom. There were people there when I arrived and I'll admit to being nervous about going. This was my first knitting class ever and even though I've been knitting for a while, I was afraid that I wouldn't be good enough or that everyone would hate me. Irrational fears for the win! /sarcasm. So I sat down and got myself situated. It also turns out that I had nothing to fear. Everyone started chatting and I found myself joining in without feeling awkward.
When we got started, we learned a new method to cast on called the Old Norwegian method. Since the needles I was using were larger than I normally use for making socks, it was a little awkward but it was really neat how it worked. I also felt good that I wasn't the only one who didn't know how to do it.
As we started knitting, Ann was talking about leading legs of stitches. At this point, I confessed to being a self-taught knitter and that I had a stupid question as I had no idea what she was talking about. Ann started to explain and then came over to look at my knitting. She gave it a funny look and asked me to purl a couple of stitches. I had to knit a couple of stitches first and as I worked the purl stitches Ann pointed out something very important. I was purling backwards. I had taught myself to purl by taking the yarn under and up to form the stitch instead of over and down. Ann then told me it was a good thing I asked me question and that it definitely wasn't stupid. Of course, I then needed to decide if I was going to frog works in progress or not.
The class Ann was teaching was how to do short row heels and toes. She had been asked to teach from the top down, which she hadn't done before. Even though I've enjoyed heels with the heel flap method, I
loved the short row method. I used this on my Tiberius socks but I hadn't added rows for the ankles, which means that those socks don't
quite fit correctly. We got done with the heel and took a lunch break. I joined one of the women in the class and we went to a tasty Korean/American fusion restaurant called the Green Spoon. It was fun chatting with another newer knitter. We talked about our craft and our husbands' hobbies. I mentioned doing the yarn shop hop in our electric car and she lit up. She had read my blog!
When we got back, Ann told us that she was going to teach us the "real" way to do the short row heel. She had written water downed instructions which were easier. This turns out to be true as doing the "real" directions, you do a sssp (slip slip slip purl) which is probably one of the most awkward stitches ever. You slip 3 stitches as though to knit them, slip the left needle in to purl, pull out the right needle and them put it back through the stitches from behind. It did close up the holes though and looked much neater.
During class, I texted mom to ask about a yarn store she use to go to a lot in Denver. Ann lives out in Colorado and mom had taken classes from her before. Mom said to tell Ann that she was the one with the bad knees. When I told this to Ann, she responded that she'd taught several people with bad knees. I pointed out that my mom is probably the only one who has had both knees done twice. This sparked recognition and Ann asked about a few more details. Once we established that she did indeed remember mom, she asked how mom was doing.
The other really cool thing about class was that when we were about to learn a new technique, Ann would have us come up in groups and stand behind her so that we could see things from the "right" angle. She knits continental and some of us knit English style, so she made a point to explain how to do things both ways, though she struggled with actually knitting in the English style. It was really helpful to see how to do things from the direction that we were going to be doing them. My brain tends to get confused when I flip things around. In fact, my brain got confused doing backwards yarn overs during the short rows despite the fact that I had already done it several times. I think my brain would have been even more confused if I hadn't been able to see things from behind Ann. This was probably the most brilliant thing as I didn't have to lean over next to her to see what she was doing and I didn't have to try to reverse it.
At one point, I screwed up my heel (I'm not sure how) and Ann looked at it. I had too many stitches left but nothing left to decrease. Her recommendation? Rip it out until I could find the problem and then do it over. This is how she does it when even she makes a mistake. This is comforting to know that even a well accomplished knitter will make things up.
