Knitting with Nathan
So my knitting has taken an immediate detour… I started working on a hat for myself (Eco Alpaca's Charcoal Grey undyed baby alpaca) and it's going well, but Nathan, and Christmas, have side-tracked me.
On the way out of Twist a week ago, Nathan (our 9-year-old) saw some bright orange yarn… orange and blue are his school colors (their mascot is a tiger), and he wanted to make a scarf for a teacher.
So last Saturday, we dropped by Twist to knit and I bought him a couple skeins of Cascade wool yarn in bright orange and a darkish blue. Borrowed the round "hat" weaving looms out of the library and Mona, one of the Twist regulars, taught him how to knit on the loom. We abandoned that little bit of work and left the looms behind, and Sunday I bought a set of "long" ("double-rake") looms at Michael's, since he wanted to knit a scarf, and the Knifty Knitter double-rakes are set to a smaller gauge than the round "hat" looms, which is more appropriate for the worsted weight yarn he picked. I also ordered the Knitting Loom Primer from Amazon Sunday afternoon, and thanks to Amazon Prime's two-day shipping and the book shipping from the Oklahoma warehouse, it arrived yesterday.
So when I got home from work yesterday, Nathan had the book out and had started the scarf by himself. He wasn't far in and was having trouble with getting the wrapping right, so I helped him set it straight and he knit three rows before deciding to play a board game. But he enjoyed it, and likes how quickly it goes, and he's making big plans to make all kinds of things and to learn to knit on needles. I'm just hoping he finishes this project.
While we played the board game, I started a hat with the other skein of yarn that matches his scarf. There are a lot of neat patterns and techniques in the book (dang, you can purl, increase/decrease, cable knit and even do Fair Isle patterns… the makers of knitting looms are under-marketing them) and I figured it was a good idea to get ahead of Nathan a bit, so I could help him when he tried something more advanced and had trouble. And he's more likely to finish his work if he sees me finishing something similar. So I'm making a hat, and I've got another small Christmas project I want to knock out, so my own hat is on-hold for awhile. Which is cool.
Knitting again
Oh, you didn't know I knit before? Heh.
So a few years ago (I'm unclear on the time, I want to say "a couple," but thinking about it, it's more like three or four), I decided to try knitting. I like practical hobbies, and knitting is inexpensive and very portable. So I practiced a bit, knit one chunky scarf for my son, got busy and put it in a box to await the matching hat.
But "busy" wasn't the full reason I stopped. A big part of it was the thing that makes people wonder why I even started: I'm a guy. And as this was about the point I realized that I'm looking for social hobbies, I found a local knitting circle. And, as expected (here on the edge of the Bible belt, at least), they were all women. I was a little uncomfortable being the only guy in a group full of women. They were welcoming, none of them ever looked at me funny, but it was awkward, 'cause I'm not "just one of the girls," but conversation carried on as if I were. Not that I'm a prude or anything, but I just don't relate to conversation about boobs and periods and how men never do anything around the house. (And, lady, your boobs look just fine in that sweater. I'm not seeing anything to complain about.)
A couple years ago, a nifty yarn shop (Twist) opened up near my house in the Delano neighborhood, and just going in and looking at all the pretty yarn (the wife gave me an excuse to go) made me want to knit again. But that wasn't enough… still that "only guy" problem telling me "you won't stick with it."
Recently, I discovered there was another guy hanging out at Twist, and through the net I discovered we had a lot of common interests. So I decided to make the trek to Twist and meet him, and I've taken the craft back up. And I just discovered the "eclectic guy" I know from church also knits at Twist. So, three guys knitting at Twist… it must be a movement!
The first order of business was to dig out that scarf… I'd finished all but the fringe, so I added the fringe and gave it to my son just as the weather turned rather cold. He's named it "rainbow", and I'll post pictures soon.
Right now, I'm practicing again, getting ready to knit a hat. My first work with purling and on circular needles, the practice started out a little awkward. But I think I've practiced enough, so I bit the bullet and cast on some sweet baby alpaca yarn and start the real hat at last night's Stitch'n'Bitch at Twist. It went a lot smoother than the practice work I was doing, too. And there wasn't any bitching about men who don't do anything around the house.
My son’s idea of “what makes a good mystery”
My son is nine-years-old and in the gifted class. I'm still kind of embarrassed when I say that, because I don't want to brag, but it's just a matter of life. When I talk about my nine-year-old fourth grader, it helps to understand that he's read The Hobbit, the entire "Series of Unfortunate Events", and is in the middle of the sixth "Harry Potter" book.
He can explain the Three Act Model and the sequence of rise, climax and denouement, and how conflict is required to build this sequence of dramatic tension and release. Of course, like any parent, I wonder if he really understands it, or just recites what he's been told.
His new gifted class teacher is well-connected to other such teachers in our district, and some of them got together and had their students read the same book, Chasing Vermeer, a mystery. They then started an inter-school discussion of sorts on a blog set up for the purpose. The first blog post to which they were to respond asked, "What makes a great mystery?"
Many of the responses were the kind of thing you expect from the upper grade school levels: "One that I can't put down," "One with a great cover," "One that keeps me guessing." A few were moderately insightful, but few really grabbed hold of something that explains how to write a good mystery. But here's that proud parent moment, over which you may roll your eyes if you wish… my son's response:
I think what makes a good mystery is:
- a key item or number
- characters who normally don't like each other work together
- no one except main characters know about crime/theif
Chasing Vermeer involved numerical clues, so he focused on "number" there, but #1 hit up on the essential MacGuffin. But #2 is the big one for me… right there, he defines part of a good mystery as creating conflict. Not just the primary conflict of solving the mystery, but secondary conflict between two main characters who don't get along. Sure, he was prompted by the content of the book, but he identified this aspect as being important. I haven't read the book, but I'm guessing that #3 is a source of tension and possibly direct conflict. The big difference between his response and most of the other responses is that his response addresses concrete elements of story and while the others are much more general.
So I have some confidence… he is actually understanding something of the theory he's been taught. Now, I'll grant you, he's been taught a lot more than the usual fourth grader. They did study rise and climax in class, but he and I have looked at some of his favorite movies and books to identify and understand the story elements at work.
On the other hand, he needs to work on that i-before-e thing.