Needles & Hooks

I know, you think I’ve forgotten how to knit. Well, I haven’t. And here’s proof:

That’s a Swallow Hill beaded necklace with a few modifications. This time I wanted to make a rope length necklace, so I got an extra bag of beads. And I’m working it in the round so I don’t have to worry about the clasp cutting through the nylon cord. Also, that purple thread you see? Provisional cast on. To finish this puppy, I plan to sew the last row to the first row and have a seamless rope. No issues with cast on or cast off being too tight.

Based on my last one, it should be about 30 inches around. However, right now it’s barely filling a 24-inch circular (getting started was really hard, despite casting on with a much larger needle). So keep your fingers crossed for me. If it’s too short, my only option is to frog and redo. And that would SUCK!

Here’s a couple of close-ups:

In other knitting news, I oversee a small knitting group at work. A few of us get together at lunch over other week or so and I teach and advise. Today, I taught one of our summer students to knit. She picked up the slingshot cast on pretty easily but pulled the yarn way too tight. So I cast on for her and knit a few rows to give her something to work from and she tried both English and Continental styles of knitting. She had a lot of trouble managing the yarn and the needles English style. She did much better with Continental. She knit a couple of rows and then had to go, so we sent her off with the needles and the yarn to practice. But she was totally smiling.