Needles and Frogs

Today was the knitting class of my Knitting Hearts ministry. I really felt the pains of my busy schedule this week as I scrambled to prepare for this class. My first class (the crochet class) seemed so easy to prepare for. My class preparations were done well in advance and I had several hats made for demonstration.

The knitting class was altogether another story. My class was at 10 am this morning and at 8:30 am I was still trying to finish my demo hat! The first hat I started on Friday, was almost done with by Saturday afternoon and just when I got to the very end, I messed it up and didn't know how to recover. This is the part of the story is where frogs come in. I learned that in knitting, when you make a major mistake, you say "Rip it, Rip it" which of course it like the sound frogs make. So you guessed it, my first hat that I tried to make for the demo was "frogged"! And really it's not exactly honest to say my first hat. It would be more accurate to say the first trial of that particular hat!

When God first laid this ministry on my heart in February, I made a hat. In fact it was one of the very same hats that I attempted as a demo for this class. In February, the hat was a breeze and for some odd reason, the very same hat in September/October was quite a challenge! So I "frogged" several of those hats and went on to something else.

Today's class went well. We learned how to cast on, knit, purl and some students learned how to bind off. Most of the ladies seemed to favor crochet over knitting but are willing to hang in there until they get the hang of the stitches.

Here is a photo of my Pastor's wife working diligently on her stitches:

The fruit of her labor:

We've got the young girls involved as well. They are really enjoying learning the new techniques.

The goal is for 10 woman to commit to making 52 hats each in one year. As you can see by this picture, one has almost already filled her quota (in only a month's time)...