Stitch Samples

After years as pupil, student and teacher, September has always been more of a new beginning than January. Maybe a bit less in the recent years but September 2013 is definitely the beginning of something new as I will be going back to teaching. But this time it is not French nor Chemistry, it’s knitting.

As I have mentioned before, I will be giving knitting classes within the Children Centres in Kensington and Chelsea and the first one will start on Monday.

So I am actually quite busy preparing the classes. My students will be mothers of small children, so probably always busy and tired from sleepless nights. So the knitting might not be on top of their list so I should keep that in mind.

I am thinking of letting them practice the stitches and produce samples rather than just letting them knit an unwearable scarf. I have been inviting people to those classes and quite a few are traumatised by past knitting experience and it always seems to involve a long stretchy thing. So I really want to avoid scarfs.

I also want them to produce samples of their stitches and techniques for future reference as they might not have enough time now but will pick it up again a bit later.

Once they got a bit more confident, we will knit rather small items as I want to make sure that things can actually be finished to get the full satisfaction.

The courses only last 5 or 6 weeks and I am almost certain that most of my students will miss at least one class, that’s just how it is if you have small children.

The smallest pretty item I could think of is actually a garter stitch bow which can easily be made into a hairband, either by attaching it to an Alice band or by a simple crocheted cord. I can only hope they all have little girls rather than boys… although the same might be used as a bow tie….

Or a tiny bag or a case for the mobile phone would be easy too.

I am also currently trying out soft toy patterns to see if they would be suitable. Somehow it would be an ideal project. Lots of small pieces with a variety of tasks, casting on, binding off, increases and decreases, sewing pieces together,…. and literally everyone of my students will have at least one small child who would probably be delighted.

I have made one rather big bear, I found the pattern in the last Let’s knit issue, or rather in the complementary booklet with free patterns. It is not too bad, slightly too big I think for my purpose, very classic though and reminds me of the Mr Bean teddy which I always found very cute.

teddy

The other toy is a bit smaller, either a rabbit or a bear, depending on the ears, it is lovely too. I really like the shape of the head and the floppy ears of my rabbit. It is written by April Cromwell. She has a great blog too. bysmallmeans.wordpress.com

This one might be a bit too tricky to sew together, so I will have to think about it. Or I will end up writing my own pattern.

I will see how people are doing the first two weeks and then we will decide what to knit as project.

So, I am quite busy now but I have also been busy over summer. As we have been visiting friends and family back home, I actually had to produce a few gifts for babies. So I did a few new Versa tunics as they are highly effective, quick to knit, cute to look at and long to wear as they “shrink” from dress to top.

The only boy in the list of babies to meet and greet got a Little Rascal. As my daughter found the plain sweater “boring” I added a little orange car which got her approval.

car

cotton sweater with detail

I also made a few scarfs. A too small for me Baktus in Sirdar Smiley Stripes, a Clapo-ktus for a wedding in a beautiful  Wool-Silk-blend hand-dyed by Dye for Yarn and triangular scarf in my own design, again that great Yarn from Dye for Yarn, in the most gorgeous red.

So, I guess it’s not a surprise that I didn’t actually have time to keep this blog up to date. Sorry for this long post, I really should post more regularly.