Fiber Arts Friday: Sharing the Love

I started a new project with my client a couple of weeks ago, which has me working in a different building.  As I was getting to know my new cube-mates, our alpacas and dogs came up which lead to knitting and spinning.  Yes it's true, nearly any conversation can turn to knitting and spinning.  :-)

One of the ladies told me she wanted to learn to knit and would love to make a scarf similar to the one I was wearing.
 

Since it's a very simple pattern (K1, P1 forever), I told her I would show her how to make it and we made plans to get started this week.

After work on Tuesday, we went to JoAnn's to select yarn and needles.

We handled a bunch of yarns.  I pointed out differences between fibers.  We talked about machine washable verses hand wash only.  We talked about dye lots and self-striping yarn and I showed her that the labels suggest the appropriate needles as well.

She made her choices and we went to look at the needles.  We talked about straights verses circulars and bamboo verses metal.  I explained the sizing and how one size smaller would make a tighter fabric and one size larger would make a looser fabric.

She settled on a set of 16-inch circulars with bamboo tips.  We picked up a couple of tip stoppers and headed to the hotel.  My new friend stays at the same hotel I do.  :-)  She made some lovely chai and snacks and we got started.

We practiced the double cast-on method a few times then proceeded to knit.  It was so fun to see how excited she was when she saw the first knit stitch and then that first row of knit stitches.

We practiced a few more knit rows together and then I think she stayed up all night knitting.

The next day over lunch she picked up purling right away and we added another friend who has lots of crochet experience.  So she picked up the cast on, knit and purl stitches very quickly.

By the end of the day yesterday, two other ladies decided to join us next week.  So a simple conversation of two people getting to know each other has turned into a lunch-time knitting group of five.

Of course I have told them all about the wonder of Ravelry and YouTube, that one day I will take them to a proper yarn shop and that they will be board out of their minds before they gets halfway through their scarfs.  But for now they are both very excited to be knitting.  :-)

What wonder have you experienced this week?  It's Fiber Arts Friday, so please share.