17 down, 7 to go

Last week was a training week.  I was not able to post.  This week is also a training week, but not today. 

The Aran Afghan project:  I've knit 17 out of 24 of the squares, and will be working on this while listening to the instructor.  Once I understand the logic of a block I can carry on for the length needed without thinking about it or looking at my hands.  Understanding the logic in the designer's plan and being very practiced makes the knitting a simple mechanical pleasure instead of a major challenge.  There are 2 blocks that I know I will not be able to do this with, so I am going to save those for the weekend.

I finished a major repair job last week that I can't give too many details for.  Which is a real pity, because it was a fun and interesting challenge.  The repair involved steeking, sewing together in a stitch pattern, and then light felting to blend it into the rest of the finished work.  I can say I did the repair, but promised that the original knitter would never know that it happened so I can't show pictures or more details.  It has prompted the beginnings of a new class, though.  I'm working out how to teach folks how to do this, because frankly it was more of a challenge to figure out how I would do it than the doing ended up being.

The folks at the Spotted Sheep have asked if I would consider a fix-on-the-fly class as well.  I don't have a problem with that, as part of what I spend knit nights doing is showing knitters how to repair their knitting without ripping out.  It's a valuable thing to know how to do.  There are literally thousands of great instructions on the web, and I'm sure almost as many youtube videos.  But a lot of people learn better with hands-on.  So I'm considering swatches and presentation.

If nothing else, it's a fun exercise to write up a plan even if I don't end up being the one to teach things.

Also, I have a new stole that is on the needles.  I am not sure how I like the pattern, so once I get another 6 inches I will be putting up a progress shot and see if it's just me.

Anyway, I've got 12Gig downloads to unpack in preparation for tomorrow.  But I did want to make an appearance.