Sylvia and Knitting

Zach and Sylvia opening their Christmas Stockings

Sandy is supervising Zach while he opens a gift

Sylvia showing off her completed Cowl (Glenwood Springs, Colorado - Spring Break 2019)

Sylvia on Christmas day opening her Christmas Stocking

Sylvia showing off her first knitting project Christmas Break

We got a vacation rental in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and met the kids there for a few days over Spring Break earlier this month. It was cold out so we spent our evenings at one of our very favorite spots - Glenwood Springs Brew Pub.

A bunch of photos all jumbled up!  Ugh, suddenly adding photos to my blog posts has become difficult!  Forgive me.  I'll just tell you the story but the photos are just not chronological.

My son, Zach, and his long time girlfriend, Sylvia, were home with us at Christmastime for a number of weeks.  Sylvia and I had enjoyed making Christmas ornaments over Thanksgiving break so I asked what craft she might like to do next.  She wanted to learn to knit.  Woo Hoo!  I have never taught anyone to knit before and I shy away from teaching a brand new beginner because I do not knit in a conventional way.  When I sat down to show her how to knit, I showed her how some folks knit holding the working yarn in their right hand. Then I showed her how I knit holding the working yarn in my left hand. Then I showed her videos of how others knit holding the working yarn in their left hand.  (Most folks who hold the working yarn in their left hand have a way they wrap the working yarn around their fingers to give some tension and they "pick" the yarn.  I "throw" the yarn with my left hand which is weird.... but it works for me).

Sylvia was a super quick learner.  I was a breeze to teach her.  Her first project was a pale orange dishcloth (see photo above).  This was some version of "Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth" where you start with four stitches in one corner and you learn to increase to the midpoint and then you decrease to the opposite corner.  Next, she knit this super cute whale dishcloth.  I think it was really impressive that this was just her second project.  Of course we had to venture down to my local yarn shop and she picked out some gray chunky/bulky yarn from Plymouth Yarn called "Encore Mega".  I think she had found a scarf she liked on Pinterest so that is what we were aiming for.  The scarf is seed stitch and she cast on 21 stitches on US Size 11 needles. Every row is the same.  K1,P1 10 times and then end with a K1.  Sylvia worked on the project a lot over Christmas break.  We just met up again for Spring Break and she showed me her completed scarf.  She asked me how she could sew up the two ends to make an infinity cowl so we did that.  I snapped a photo of her in her scarf/cowl and I think she looks great and I think her knitting looks great too!