Having Forgotten How to Do Cables...

I actually forgot how hard it is to work cables with a cable needle.

You see, I don't do them that way anymore. I do cables without a cable needle. I put my right hand needle tip into the stitches I want crossed, and pull all off the left hand needle (be it 2, 4 or 6 stitches) then I snag up the "dropped on purpose stitches" with my left hand needle, and return the crossed ones to the left hand needle, and then I knit them.

If I want a right crossed cable, I do that maneuver from the front.
If I want a left crossed cable, I do that maneuver from the back.

It never fails me. The "dropped" stitches don't have any tension on them, and so they just sort of "hang there" in mid air until I pick them back up again.

I really like this way of doing cables, and I've been doing it that way for a long while now.

So while teaching, imagine my surprise when I find out that I'm having difficulty and looking like a complete idiot with a cable needle?

I actually thought I was about to lose the faith of my student there for a while, until I admitted freely that I hadn't been doing cables with a cable needle for like forever--

And when I showed her the "easier way", and when she TRIED the "easier way", she was so tickled for learning such an advanced knitting technique that I thought she might fall out of her chair! I even showed it to the boss, and she was thrilled to learn it herself.

It was fun, seeing the happy glow in her face after she completed her second cable that way, and I'm certain that our knitting sisterhood will go on for years as she works on her next project.

Later in the evening, I also taught a granny square class. I had two students for this, and so things are looking up. I can't share the pattern, of course, but it's a nice square, and I'm considering creating a lap-ghan for our house out of the blocks. They are quite a bit larger than the cotton dishcloth blocks that I'm making--so the "ghan" won't take so many squares...maybe twelve tops. So now I have to stash bust to find the "right colors" for it. I really think that I'd like to make one in the colors that one of my students used. I think it looked very "christmassy", and I'm starting to get into the mood for creating something that will lay about the house that exudes a "christassy" attitude.

My mother's birthday is today. I drove to her house to wish her a happy birthday, have cake and give her a new dishcloth (the log cabin from Monthly Dishcloth's Yahoo Group), and a SnowFlake Scarf to wear when it gets cold outside. She thought the beaded scarf was just beautiful. She said that the cloth would go on her counter and never be used to wash dishes.

Hmm.

Okay.

So to get beyond being exhausted, I started a frou-frou scarf made out of eyelash yarn. One skein turned out to be insufficient for the scarf, so I started a second skein. I should have it finished by the end of the evening.

And I'm also teaching on the internet using Yahoo Messenger to a friend in California. At present, she's knitting feverishly away on a mitten using magic loop technique I taught her on a hat, and so she is learning a lot along the way. This is on the way toward teaching her how to do socks, two at a time, using magic loop....which is her next lesson. First, cuff down, and then toe up.

That should be fun.

And I took a nap today. I've never been good about working on the weekend, but these knitting classes are just too fun to "feel" like work--even so, my body knows and tells me when I've overdone--and I've definitely overdone today. So I rested. Now I have to get going and make supper so that my husband won't go hungry.