Highlights

Let me tell you about a couple highlights from my weekend at the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling. (Besides the camaraderie and the dessert reception, of course.)

The first was when a former Slick Set-in Sleeves student showed me a sweater she’d knit using that technique. It was stunning! The fit, the yarn selection, the stitch patterns – all perfect. Seeing that sweater was quite a thrill for me because it was the first time a former student had shown me what they’d been able to achieve after taking the class. I’ve been teaching that class for years, so if you ask me, I had to wait far too long for that moment.

The second took place on Saturday. Someone in Friday afternoon’s Disaster Recovery class told me how she had finished a lace piece on Friday evening, binding off but not weaving in the ends. She headed back to her room, stepped off the elevator, and discovered an end dangling down into the elevator shaft. She tugged on the end, curious as it why it was so long – sure, she hadn’t woven in her ends, but none was that long. Yard after yard came out of the elevator shaft. Finally she realized that the bind-off had unraveled, to the tune of 200+ stitches! Many stitches had unraveled back several rows. Normally, she told me, she would’ve bust out in tears. But having taken Disaster Recovery mere hours before, she had the skills and confidence she needed to get all the stitches back on needles, and to repair the damaged rows. Whoo hoo!

And that, folks, is why I teach. It’s why I put up with the travel hassles, and the loss of “normal” weekends. Knowing that students are putting new skills to good use is about the best reward there could be.

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