Beginnings
I signed up for a knitting class.
Lots of things led to this decision, but most are not relevant to the purpose of these writings.
So I signed up for a knitting class – something which was way outside my comfort zone for several reasons, least of which was the fact that paying to learn a hobby seemed…phony? Like, aren’t you supposed to just happen upon a hobby? But again, that’s probably too philosophical for this.
So I signed up for a knitting class because I already knew how to sew (somewhat well) and it would get me out of the house, at least for 3 Wednesday evenings in October. I grabbed the required supplies for the first class on October 2nd –
“…a pair of size 7 knitting needles and a skein of worsted weight yarn (no dark colors),”
– and arrived at Harding High School, just west of downtown Saint Paul.
Mary Benton Hummel, teacher, had been leading the Beginning Knitting 101 class for 44 years. Such a long tenure would probably make a normal person go mad, but not Mary Benton. She was a character – witty, sharp as a whip, good at storytelling, encouraging, and patient as hell. Here is her bio on the Community Education website:
Mary-Benton Hummel, seriously over-educated with six college degrees, has been teaching with Community Education since 1980. Best known for her Cemetery Walking Tour, she also offers a smorgasbord of classes in other areas such as knitting, letterpress printing, basketry, and pop-up cards. She loves to teach and will share anything she knows on almost any subject. Mary-Benton has chipmunks living under her back porch.
Enough said. Her task was akin to teaching a kid to ride a bike, show first, then let it rip. Afterall, the best way to learn is to do. In just three classes, we learned about knitting, purling, garter & stockinette, ribbing, size 1 needles, size 17 needles, a shawl surging in popularity thanks to Martha Stewart’s perp walk, smuggling needles onto an airplane, and the importance of securing your spot at the cemetery before all the good plots are taken.
So I signed up for a knitting class, learned a lifetime’s worth of wisdom for a relatively small fee, and fell in love with knitting.
My hope for this page is to document everything important (to knitting) I’ve experienced since October 2. I’ll be posting about learning new techniques, the projects I used them in, and all the hilarious mistakes along the way.
One of the main reasons I signed up for this class was to meet people. Not having school to force friends upon me was hard so I found more school to go to. The Yarned and Dangerous group now meets monthly to show off finished projects, works in progress, and all the pitfalls we’ve encountered along the way.