One of the things I love to do best is teach. Teach anything. I love teaching Vacation Bible School, I love tutoring, I love teaching computers (which was my last job before I became a lady of leisure…) and I really love teaching knitters. Once a month I make a bunch of new knitters over at my local yarnstore, A Stitch In Time. And I have a tendency to want to convert everyone. Be a knitter. Like be a pepper. Wouldn’t you like to be a knitter too?

So in support of my quest to convert the world to knitters, I tend to find an excuse to bring knitting into nearly any situation. Like this Friday. Our MOMS group is having a charity auction up at school. And folks donate baskets that are bid upon. So of course I made up a knitting basket. I gave it a lot of thought. What would be best? I needed something that would be good for a beginning knitter, and that might also be interesting enough for someone who had been doing it for awhile.

I decided on a kit to make baby blankets. Yes, blankets plural. I could not decide what color yarn to buy – boy or girl. I think using plain old yellow or green is a bit of a cop-out. Commit! Commit I say! So I got yarn for both.

I’m pretty proud of the basket. It’s a collapsible Lantern Moon basket filled with 8 balls of yarn, the 8-Hour Baby Blanket book (that has 14 patterns that use 4 balls), the right size needles, a row counter, stitch markers, tapestry needles, a Lantern Moon Sheepy measuring tape, little tags that say “Made With Love For Baby” and a namaste bag to hold all of the notions. I also included a note in the basket description, “Not a knitter? Not a problem!” that let folks know they could have a free 2 hour knitting lesson if they wanted to learn. I hope it’s popular!

Oh and if you want to come to the auction, there should be lots of neat stuff to bid on. If you know me, you know where the boys go to school. 7pm Friday, and it’s $10 or a new $10 toy donation to get in the door. Desserts will be served. Should be fun!

Ok, so it’s not really sooper seekrit, seeing as I’ve taught it in my classes to at least 50 people (probably more). But it’s good, and when people think something is a secret recipe, it makes it more desirable, no? Ok, maybe not. But anyways…

So here it is. The way I like to start socks. You need:

1 crochet hook (smallish)
1 40-inch addi needle (or other long circular with a very flexible cord)
Sock yarn
About one yard of waste yarn in a similar weight

Ok. Grab your crochet hook, your needle, and your waste yarn. Leave the sock yarn alone for now. Give it a drink or a cookie or something to hold it until your ready for it. Assuming that you’re right handed (if you’re not please reverse the instructions if if helps), things should be positioned like this:

You’ve got the waste yarn attached to the crochet hook with a slip knot. The needle is on the left, and underneath. The crochet hook is on the right and on top. The working yarn is wrapped under the needle from the right and has been looped back over the top. What you are doing is basically chaining right onto the needle, by using the crochet hook to pull a loop of the working yarn through the loop already on the hook. It will start to look like this:

Each time you add a new stitch, you will need to take the working yarn down under the needle to the right and back around to the top. You want to chain ONTO the needle, not independent of the needle.

How many stitches should you cast on? That’s a very good question. I’m shooting for 60-64 stitches with this sock. So I cast on 14. If your st count is divisible by four, do this: St count divided by four, minus two. For mine I did 64/4 = 16 – 2 = 14 sts to cast on. Is that too scary? Well if it is, comment or shoot me an e-mail or pm me on Ravelry and I will figure it out for you. If your st count is *not* divisible by four, do this: St count divided by four, rounded down, minus two. 70 sts = 70/4 = 17.5 is about 17 -2 = 15 sts to cast on.

Ok enough math. Did you hear me? The math is done. Wipe the drool off your chin and pay attention again. When you’ve cast on the required number of sts, leave a nice long loop, as shown below. We’ll use that later for the unzipping!

So you have your however many sts cast on. Now it’s time to give some loving to that sock yarn. Ew. That’s just gross. Just switch to the main yarn and get ready to work. This is what you do, you knit 7 rows in stockinette stitch, with the first row being knit. Just to be clear: Rows 1, 3, 5 & 7: Knit all sts. Rows: 2, 4, & 6: Purl all sts. You will end up with a tiny rectangle that will look like the one below. Now you’re ready to unzip.

Turn your work around so that the wrong side is facing you. Using the other end of your circular needle, insert it into the first st on the needle (the one with the long loop attached to it) from the back to the front. Once your needle is in the work, unzip that first stitch. Do this for all the remaining stitches, one by one.

Once all of your stitches have been unzipped, you are ready to pick up sts on each end of the rectangle to work in the round. All you have to do is pick up two sts on each of the short ends of the rectangle. It doesn’t have to be crazy precise where they go, as it is the toe of your sock. But picking up 2 sts on each end moves you from rectangular knitting to knitting in the round.

The next part is easy. You just need to alternate increase rounds (increasing 4 sts each round) with knitting plain to get the toe to the right size for you. Which increase should you use? Another very good question. I used to be all anal about mine, doing left leaning bar increases and llincs and all that nonsense. But then I remembered it’s my toe! And if it’s cold enough to wear socks here (which rarely happens for me) I am really not gonna care. So I just do kf&b (knit front & back) increases. And honestly, I think they look very nice.

Oh and that lovely background? It’s the chart for my newest sock. It’s not as bad as it looks. And I think it will be worth it. More on that later.

..than a yarn store crawl. Well, I guess a yarnstore crawl with a wad of cash in my pocket would be better but a yarnstore crawl where the first store is having a sale is pretty darned good. Saturday was our monthly Jax Ravelers gathering. But this time we opted to yarn crawl. First off we hit the Local Needle. Congratulations are in order, as this was Joan’s anniversary celebration. And she did it up right. There was food, and wine, and yarn tasting!!! She had the Hanne Falkenberg trunk show *and* a Jojoland trunk show, which are both still going on btw. And she had a sale. So although I was trying to be frugal, I came home with this…

But I only paid for the Dream In Color you see pictured. Joan gave away goodies! And good goodies too. I actually received the eucalan samples and a kit to make a bracelet, but I traded outside. Yes, I traded, like some grade school kid at lunch. Blogless Dana wanted the bracelet kit, and I had already worked one. So we swapped. Plus I really love the colors in the coin purse kit.

And fresh off my Liesl, I decided another small Dream In Color project was in order. Because that yarn is love. Love, I tell you.

Next up we hit A Stitch In Time, where Susan the new owner continues to bring in lovely yarns. Overwhelmed by all the yarny goodness I had experienced that day, I ended up bringing home another (yes, another) skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock.

Yes, this is my third skein if anyone is counting. The stuff is so pretty, and the colors, and the softness, and well it’s Noro. I really need to get my butt moving on writing up some patterns for that stuff. Because it really is lovely.

In other knitting news, the February Lady Sweater is coming along nicely. I’m getting 4 spi, so I’m able to work a slightly smaller size. I should be done with the yoke today if time is on my side.

And in random self promotion news, the class schedule is live for Sugarbee Studios. My class schedule is also on my class page. I’m very excited to start teaching again. If you’re interested in any of the classes you can visit the Politically Incorrect group on Ravelry or you can comment here or e-mail me at corrina at picnicknits dot com – you know how that works. I’d love to have you in class. Private lessons are also available at the studio, and if you’ve never been there, you’re missing out! Chris’ home is gorgeous, and her mother’s cooking is legendary – there are price options for lunch to go with classes. Hope to see you at the studio soon!

The down was being sick. So we didn’t make Disney this past weekend because big J was sick. And then the man got sick. And then I got sick. Little J (the newly nine one) has not gotten sick yet. I *really* hope he doesn’t get sick in school. Because nothing sticks with you like a bad nickname earned from barfing on Sally’s shoes in lunch line. So bah on sickness. A pox even.

The up is really up! Even though I am still all achey from being sick, I am one excited girlie today. One of the things I really love to do is teach. Especially knitting stuff. And I’ve made some plans to do it again. A good friend of mine has this amazing home where she runs her fibery business of love. I say that with a straight face, because if you’ve ever been there, you know. So anyhow…

This is the link to the calendar. All the details and pricing will be ironed out by Sunday, September 28, 2008. I am so excited to be teaching again, that all I can do is bounce in my chair. Bouncy, bouncy.

I usually don’t post without pictures, but I can’t show you anything today. I ripped out the fragging February Lady sweater and restarted it – nothing to show there. And the sock pattern I’m working on is sooper seekrit. Speaking of that, there is only one single space left in the Belly Up To The Bar sock club. Better get it now before it’s gone.

And so my post isn’t nekkid without a picture…

If you buy 9 votives at Yankee Candle they give you this precious little apple basket. Yes, I know I could have just bought the basket for $4.99, but free is so much better. Even if I did have to drop $20 to get it!