Bunny Knits

Today I taught the girl how to knit. She actually picked it up pretty quickly, and is totally into it. The day had a lot of NatalieNatalieNatalieNATALIE!!! screaming while she yelled for me to help her with a slipped stitch or having just forgotten what she was supposed to do. At one point she was sitting there complaining and whining that she had no idea what she was doing, all while knitting perfectly fine. And everytime anything went wrong she would sit and call her needles stupid, which I find amusing. In order for her to remember what she was doing I told her a little phrase to say while she knit. I'm pretty sure that the same thing has been said all over the place and has existed forever, but it was what I thought of when I showed her. It was:

In the Bunny hole (for picking up the first stitch)
Around the bunny ear (for throwing the yarn around the needle)
Back out the bunny hole (for pulling the new stitch through)
Running away (for pulling the stitch off the left hand needle)
I just told her to say that to herself over and over again, so that she wouldn't forget what to do next.

In the morning the boycousin was sitting watching the girl and I knit and he said that one of the reasons that he doesn't get people who knit is that he doesn't understand how knitting works, how the fabric is created. So I explained that it is just loops on top of loops, and that knitting in the round is just one big spiral. It seemed to have helped him understand because later in the day the girl and I came downstairs and found the boycousin sitting staring at the girls bright pink rag that she had abandoned mid row and asked her to show him what to do. Which greatly amused her. There was the, "no let me do it", and "you're doing it wrong!" Very funny. He insisted on finishing the row, much to her chagrin. I'm going to bring the ball of black yarn I have, and see if I have some other big needles, and see if he'll go for it. He swore he won't knit, can't see the draw in knitting all day and would only see the amusement for rainy days, which today was. Besides, he doesn't wear scarves. Well only when he skis. But he does have a black knit hat that it would match....

We'll have to see what happens. We may make a convert of him yet.

In my own knitting news, the sock is a few rows and a cast-off from completion. I'm almost done the first strap of the back-pack. I'm making it 17 inches long instead of 16, since the 16 just looks just so tiny. I've started to knit the ribbing on my sweater, only 4.25 inches left! I don't think I'm going to double up the ribbing on this one, a total of 30 inches of ribbing may kill me (again). I'm also thinking of attaching yarn for one of the sleeves before I finish the body ribbing, just to break the monotony. I'm going to see how much I can get through today, since I told the girl that I would bring the sweater in to show her tomorrow and don't really fancy carrying around too many balls of yarn.