B is for ...

Beth Brown-Reinsel! Seen here with me (Bridget, if you are counting B's), at yesterday's class to learn how to knit fair isle, by knitting a sample-sized tam. (I apologize for the grainy picture, someone else took it, and it was the best one of the two they took. Yeah, like mine would be better ...)

As you may or may not remember, last January, I took a class with Beth at Loop, one of the yarn stores near my house, where we knit a mini-gansey to learn those techniques. It was such a great class, and I thought she was such a wonderful teacher, that I decided if there were ever other ones offered, I'd try to take them. When I saw the announcement for her visit to the store this year, I immediately signed up for the fair isle class, as one of my knitting New Year's resolutions was to learn fair isle.

The class started yesterday at 10 a.m., and ran until 5 p.m. Which, when you looked at it on paper, seemed like a long time. It zipped by! There were about 12 people in the class, and everyone was roughly at the same level, which made it nice, 'cause there weren't any know-it-all types who tried to "correct" her. She really is a great teacher, and such a genuinely nice person, that whatever she is showing you seems perfectly logical.

Beth mentioned at the start of the class that we would not have time to finish our sample tams during the class, but that she was guessing we'd get a good start. By the end of the day, most people were at least halfway through the pattern, and everyone was so excited! I can see how fair isle knitting would become addictive, because you knit one row, and then you think, "One more, so I can see how it's going to work" - except then you say that every row, and all of a sudden, you've been knitting for an hour and a half ...

At the end of the class, we all placed what we had knitted so far on a table at the shop together, and it was a revelation. We were all using exactly the same pattern, and the same brand of yarn, but everyone had chosen their own colors - which made each hat appear to be completely different from the others! Amazing.

Here's what I managed to knit under Beth's tutelage (heh, heh, I used "tutelage"):

I am really happy with it. Beth mentioned that my tension was especially even, which made me feel good, because usually when someone is talking to me about tension, there is nothing good about it ...

For those of you who may be appalled that I took at class at Loop, instead of at Rosie's, just get your knickers untwisted, will you? Both of them are nearby, and I spend way more time (and $$) at Rosie's in general. And even the most absolutely perfect yarn store in the world does not offer everything you want all of the time, and I wanted to take another class with Beth Brown-Reinsel. FYI, I am also starting the Krazy Kolors class this Thursday evening at Rosie's, so I am hardly neglecting one place for another. Geez.

Oh, and Carol - I know that you and Veronik are friends, but some of the rest of us know famous people too, so there!

And, on top of everything else, I think I ended up with an excellent entry for "B" in the ABC-Along ...