I Like To Watch Listen

Have you been listening to Stash and Burn? I love it. I don't have a huge stash by any means, and I think it's a little kooky to have a regularly recurring podcast that's all about how you have way too much yarn but you keep getting more. (hee hee, I mean, if we would ALL stop fiddling around on the internets and reorganizing our stashes, etc., think of all the knitting we would get done! sigh...) But I love listening to Nicole and Jenny talk about their yarns, patterns, projects, techniques, etc. And the last couple of podcasts have them going on assignment to various yarn stores and events. Mostly, I like their style; I feel like I'm listening to a couple of my best buds. Plus, they both say, "yaaaaayyyyy!" a lot. :)

The last podcast, Episode 17: Sticks Are For Kids, though, I felt was written just for me. Here are a couple of reasons why:

Teaching the Youngsters
They chat about Jenny's experience teaching some schoolkids how to knit... I have considered this many times (I teach elementary school) but haven't figured out how it would make sense with my whole class. This spring I did a little weaving activity with cheap-o tangly acrylic yarn and drinking straws, which was interesting and difficult (yarn) at the same time. But now I have some new ideas... perhaps next year I'll try to teach finger knitting first. The kids are always interested in knitting when they either see me doing it or see me wearing something I've knit.

Our First Knitting Books
I, too, found the Stich N Bitch books invaluable when I was first learning to knit. The illustrations and language made every step so easy to follow. I used the first SNB book as my go-to reference for quite a while until I found Nancie Wiseman. Now she is my Constant Companion. Some day, I want to get a copy of Montse Stanley's book, too.

Jenny and Nicole wonder about Vogue Knitting patterns and how they keep hearing about terrible errata in each pattern. I did knit my absolute favorite (so far!) sweater, Shawl Collared Pullover, from a VK magazine. That pattern was really very well written and didn't have any errors that I could see.



So, if you haven't tried Stash and Burn, give it a listen. It's usually only about half an hour long and well edited, so easy on the ears.