How Do You Like Them Apples?

Let me tell you...some of my students are on fire!! There is one boy in my class who particulary cranks out hats like there's no tomorrow. He's fast. He's smooth. A perfectionist (almost). The whole class is amazed at how fast he can knit. Here are just some of his goods.





His current WIP.

This student was making what seemed like a fancy shower cap as it was knitting up. But now I'd say it's a dandy beret. Not a bad effort.


This student is my creative knitter. She just knits away and figures out what it will be later. This is one of her more conventional projects. Her colorwork experiment worked out very well.


Finally, this knitter has truly amazed me. The work she produces is so nice. She tries new projects and new methods. When she comes to a part in her pattern that she doesn't know how to work, and I'm busy across the circle with another student, I can literally describe with words what she needs to do...she looks into space as she visualizes what I'm describing...she knits it up. Very impressive.


Playing with the loom.

The Dishcloth

As boring as it may seem, I am still convinced that the dishcloth is a fantastic first project. I explain to the students that they will learn how to use knits and purls effectively to make a simple pattern. They must learn (in order to make a square) that keeping the same number of stitches on the needle in each row really does matter. They must learn in the stockinette pattern how to tell the difference between the knit side and the purl side as well as how to tell which side they are actually on. They learn to even up their tension and that though it may not look exactly even and perfect, a dishcloth can still be wonderfully used. I assure them that making the dishcloth is exactly what they need in order to move on to making something that someone would actually wear. Most of them accept this task, while others balk. But overall, they all seem to do a pretty good job.




Isn't that a pretty rainbow?

Busy Little Bees

My husband has been on a bread making kick lately. We use the bread machine that was given to us over 13 years ago. It still makes great bread!! Most of the time we use it to make pizza dough and thus, homemade pizza. But lately...bagels and french bread! Yum!

Then, my daughter, after watching cooking shows, was inspired to make these marshmellow creme filled chocolate cupcakes. The recipe is found on the Martha Stewart website. Look in the Every Day Food section. They were delish!

Me???? Here's my first earflap hat. I bought the yarn as a throw in to make it up to a $25 minimum purchase from Little Knits I had never seen or touched the yarn before, but just liked the colors. My husband had been wanting an earflap hat and when I received the yarn, I knew it would be the hat. The yarn is Noro (I want to say "Transitions," but DRATS! right now I can't find the label). It felt a bit twiney and scratchy at times as I worked it up, but as a hat it is soft enough and my husband has a great head of hair to protect. The pattern is adapted from a baby earflap hat pattern in One Skein Wonders.








My daughter snagged it before my husband even had the chance.