Gonna Go Get Some Class

I am an idiot.

Well, maybe not a COMPLETE idiot, but I do a pretty good impersonation of one on a regular basis.

I was in a Guild class last night (for more information on the Sacramento Knitting Guild, please look at the link under 'Favorite Links' for the Sacramento Stockinettes), and I had the most awfullest time. Guild classes are usually a lot of fun and I had been looking forward to this particular class for a while since it was taught by a friend of mine, Dorris.

(I love Dorris. Dorris, for those of you who don't know her, is a wonderful woman who has been knitting all her life. She is retired - I decline to mention her exact age - but is always on the go and trying out new things. She looks like she is in her mid-40's and has the energy of several teenagers. I envy her since I am in my mid-40's and have the energy of a slug.)

My misery was not Dorris' fault. No. The project was a copy of her Grandmother's coin purse, circa 1890. This was a clever design of what looks like the toe of a sock and the cuff. It had a closed loop with a ring to hold the purse closed.

It seemed like a simple design - I mean, if you've ever done a sock you should be able to take care of this EASILY since all the hard parts of a sock are missing. To make things even easier for us, Dorris even wrote several versions of the pattern - bottom up as well as TWO different methods for top down! She provided rings for the top closures. The only thing that would've made things easier for us was if she knitted the purse up for us herself.

My idiot impersonation - and a very fine performance, if I might add - was with the cast-on.

I, like so many knitters, really only use one cast-on for all of my projects. I've occasionally strayed from my beloved cable cast-on but have always returned, feeling guilty about seeing the "other cast-on". I got into a groove with the status quo and stubbornly refuse to try other methods. Who knew that this would turn around to bite me in the butt? Isn't faithfulness supposed to be a good thing?

Alas, my favored cable cast-on failed me for this project. I sat there for most of the class, feeling like the class dunce, just trying to figure out how to start the project. A simple project. My face is still red...

I now have a new resolution to TRY DIFFERENT CAST-ON'S. One size does not fit all. I've added links to knitting help sites - ya gotta love You Tube - and hopefully you can benefit from my lesson in stupidity.

Dorris, thank you for all your patience!!!!