I did go to the Stitch'n'Bitch last night; first I got to have dinner at Wildflower with Kim, Jen, Brooke (and Jack) and Pam, then I stashed my stuff on a chair and did something more crucial than a stitch'n'bitch, the obligatory Changing Hands book browse'n'buy, then I knitted several inches more on my current sock and hung out with Becky and Alison.
Oddly enough I spent some time teaching a woman on my other side who has been knitting for years, but who may be one of the least adventurous knitters I've met. She learned from her mother in Continental style, and has made mittens and sweaters for her kids and grandkids.... but only things involving knit and purl stitches. She wanted to learn lace, so I showed her a simple YO k2tog pattern. Apparently she learns best by having someone demonstrate what to do, and the only other knitters she'd known used the English style and couldn't teach her. It must just be a (lack of) spatial sense thing; since the major difference is just which hand you hold the working yarn in, it just doesn't seem like a big deal to me to learn it one way and then convert to a method I found more comfortable. It's becaue I can do that, I suppose; whenever something comes naturally or has been learned well enough to be internalized, it's always hard to understand why other people can't figure it out. Still, it seemed funny to be teaching someone who has knitted sweaters, while I'm only 4" into my first one, and who has knitted for several more decades than I have years.
Tonight's adventure is the visit to the chiropractor. I wasn't sure whether thye can work with me in office clothes, so I brought shorts just in case.
Apropros of nothing, there are a lot of phrases I do not like, that I hear a lot. What they have in common is that they're generally euphemisms and usually either coy, or sexist. A sampling: "passed away", or worse "passed"; "loved ones", "little ones" (oddly, I don't mind a singular "little one" so much , as in Malvina Reynolds "Turn Around"), or "little man", especially when used to imply that that tiny bit of extra flesh makes him somehow more important. I don't know why I dislike them (except in that last case, where I know exactly why) but I wish people would just say "died", "family" or "people you love", and "children". I could also do without "hubby", though for some reason, possibly the Trumpkin factor, I don't mind "DH". I'm trying to think of other ones, but all the phrases I'm coming up with now are political, which is not at all the same thing.
Posted by dichroic at March 3, 2005 12:22 PMI learned Continental first, but later I learned English. If you are doing something large, it's helpful to do the first side in one style and return in the other. I'm sure it has something to do with spatial recognition, but I learned to do it because my father told me my cousin used to it (she was a lefty); anything she could do, I was sure I could do!
Posted by: l-empress at March 3, 2005 12:42 PMI can't knit at all, despite having been raised by l-empress. However, I dig completely on your Trumpkin - aka DLF - reference. Up arms for Narnia.
Posted by: golfwidow at March 3, 2005 02:18 PMI see "DH" and all I can think is "Designated Hitter." So that's why mine is "The Huz," in homage to a Kander & Ebb song.
Posted by: Melanie at March 3, 2005 02:29 PM*smile* Both "hubby" and "DH" bother me, for some reason. But I like "loved ones." "People you love" is more complicated and not quite as simply eloquent, to my ear, and "people" is such a generic word. "Loved ones" sounds much more intimate. And usually when I say loved ones, I mean more than just family. So I usually use "friends and family" or "loved ones," just because that is what I mean.
Posted by: Melissa at March 6, 2005 05:48 PM