“Hey mister smarty-pants instructor, you threw so much stuff at us yesterday that our minds are scrambled. How about helping us sort out that information?”
“Okay, I have lots more information and skills for you to learn, but we can stop and review to fill in some holes.”
We started with a review this morning of everything we learned yesterday. Thankfully, all the new information soaked into our heads overnight, and this morning, everyone could speak with relative confidence about cables, and various stitch patterns that are common in Aran and Gansey knitting.
10:34am: Wooohoo! Jennifer, a student in class, just jumped up to hit our “easy button” (the kind you can buy at Staples). After a concentrated hour spent setting up and working the blackberry stitch (aka Trinity stitch), we have achieved blackberries! The sweet little stitch clusters are popping up on everyone’s swatches. We’re still needing to take deep breaths, but the sun is out.
Here is a completed blackberry (trinity) stitch
2:00 The sample designs are in full swing and many learning opportunities have presented themselves. Ahh, a whole hour of just working on our own designs! Think we’ll take a break from cables and learn how to knit button bands on sweaters.
4:30pm: You can tell it’s just about the end of class time. We just spent an hour and a half learning how to twist three stitches of stockinette out and across a background of purl stitches, also known as “twisting” (as opposed to cabling, which is strictly knit-over-knit or purl-over-purl). I am hitting the easy button every ten minutes or so, which the students find encouraging. Hooray for everyone for coming this far!
Jessica wrapping up the blog for the day
The students seem to have enjoyed all the learning they can stand for today. Tomorrow we’ll discuss the differences between Arans and Gansey designs, and each student will begin a bigger project that will last them through the end of the week (and beyond…?).
