Knitting At The Speed Of Light

I know you're thinking... What does the Broadway production of Cats have to do with knitting, Val?!

Well, let me tell you.

Thanks to Maddy's T.A.G. project, I have revisited knitting, not having knitted since Middle school... I've got about 8 inches done on a black scarf that I started and have been working on whenever I'm waiting for the kids somewhere.

Knitting is hard! Especially when you only know one stitch. Then Maddy showed me how to perl and the world opened up for me. Oh yeah!!! I KNEW it was supposed to look different...

Knit perl knit perl knit perl perl oops!

On Saturday morning, Meri and I went to our ASG sewing meeting and on the free table, I found....

Wait for it...

A Bond knitting machine! It's a Bond, Knit Bond.

The lady that gave it away got it from a woman who did the costuming for the original Cats play in New York. Cool huh?!

MEOW!

It's got tons of attachments to make wider pieces and in the original set, I can do about a yard wide. Cool! I set it up immediately when I got home and read through the directions to get me knitting right away.

Repeatedly I screwed up a scarf within the first 4 inches so I kept pulling it all apart and starting over. Then I decided to look at the contents of the yarn I was using. Oh! Worsted wool. I was using the wrong plate apparently. Popped that in and voila! I knitted about 6-7 feet in less than an hour!
The edges curl kind of stupidly. I'm afraid to iron it... I'm thinking I need to wash it by hand and lay it flat to dry.

Anyone have any better ideas?

Looking forward to having another hour sometime to figure out fancy schmancy stitches, or just knit myself a big ol' shawl.

Pearl 1, Knit 2 or something like it.

Guess who's in the Ad business now!

ME!

Today I'm putting on my sandwich sign and walking up and down streets! Well, figuratively.

My other daughter has created a blog about her TAG service project! She just started thejames216project.blogspot.com.

For her project, she's learning how to knit and will organize other people who can or want to learn how. Also, she'll be finding other knitting enthusiasts out there who would like to help. During this process, She and her knitters will be making lots of hats, scarves and mittens to eventually send to an orphanage in the Ukraine. She had emailed our pastor about places that could use them and he forwarded it on to a pastor who visits this orphanage every year.
She's really excited about this opportunity and can't wait to get a collection started. She has a video on her blog about learning how to knit and due to a crisis in our house last night, I was left with some time on my hands that didn't involve sewing... So after watching the video, I grabbed a couple knitting needles and a skein of yarn and got to it!

I haven't knitted since middle school... So it's kind of rough! But I am determined to contribute to her cause. Some orphan in the Ukraine will have a scrudly looking scarf, but at least the little tyke will be warm.

Please check out her blog and see if you'd like to help!