Group Knitting Fun

Yesterday evening, Soozi came over for dinner. With the aid of her iced tea maker, we made lots of sweet iced tea. Because that's the only kind of iced tea to have.

We also made chicken with lemon-basil sauce. Yum! It was very lemony and garlicky and quite good over orzo with a bit of Parmesan cheese.

Here's a pic of the final product:



Mmmmm...my hands still smell of garlic.

After Dinner
After eating, Soozi said the words that every knitter loves to hear: Can you show me...

Yes!

Soozi knew how to do the knit stitch, but needed a refresher regarding casting on. And, most importantly, she needed to know how to bind off. Because Soozi knit yards and yards of scarves during undergrad, only to rip it all out and start over because she didn't know the bind off secret.

It makes me sad to think of all those frogged knitted stitches.

Here is me supervising Soozi's double cast-on work:



I also showed Soozi how to purl. So, after a few practice rows of 2x2 ribbing, Soozi started her own 2x2 ribbed scarf! Yay! The scarf, which is off to an excellent start, is staying at our apartment, and Soozi is supposed to stop by maybe once a week to work on it. She's using some black and red Princess Classic Elite yarn (which I love) left over from a previous project.

Porkchop joined the knitting fun by pulling out her baby blanket project. This was a project started over a year ago but abandoned when Porkchop realized that she couldn't finish it in time for the birth of a friend's baby. The pattern is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

Here's a pic of Porkchop having so much fun:



I think the project is taking a bit longer because Porkchop is a yarn thrower (aka English knitter) (BTW, so is Soozi). I blame this all on Mark Newport. You see, I was shaping Porkchop into a fine continental knitter. Then, she took a summer class with Mark Newport at the UW and he said that right handers should knit using the English method.

Baloney! What outdated knitting theory!

Continental is so much faster and efficient because you don't have to throw your yarn around the needle. Instead, you just pick up the yarn. Easy! Fast! Efficient! Not just for left handers!!

This is a fun little article about the two knitting styles.

My Knitting
Instead of doing the fringe on my gift pouch's I-cord, I decided to start the flower petal washcloth. I have the tip of the first petal done - just 4 more and then I join them together in the round and finish it up. Easy! And fast!