Monday, April 10, 2006

The A Mano experience

Last Friday was the "Two Socks at Once" class at A Mano Yarn Center. I showed up early to take some snapshots of the yarn store. Above is the display window. What you can't see is the window seats. A great place to relax and have natural light to do knitting with.

A Mano doesn't have a super large space. But there sure are a lot of yarn! I've never realized this until I looked through the lens of the camera. Wow! No wonder the yarn often pops out and hit you when you walk by.

They have a lot of needles! Some funky ones too. I was going to get a couple of interesting Japanese circular needles made with plastic. The needles and cable are made as one piece. There's even an 8.5" circ for socks and baby hats. I'll try to remember to get them next time.

The large table in the back is where things happen. Classes, S n' B gatherings, lunch, dinner, etc.



Now on to the class. I was jumping up and down when I saw the needles did arrive in time for us. I immediately grabbed one 47" #1 and one 47" #2 Addi Turbo. I decided on a yarn that has all the colors of the rainbow (I wonder why.) Very vibrant. I am going to do another post on the yarn when I get enough length worked on the socks to show you.

Seven people showed up for the class. It was scheduled to start after the store hours. Thank goodness for that! We didn't need distraction that's for sure. It was HARD! Kathy was a very good teacher. She went through every little detail. The way she taught also encouraged us to adjust a pattern to our individual measurements.

The cast-on chosen by Kathy was Twisted German Cast-on. It is stretchier. I soon realized that it was the same as Old Norwegian Cast-on which I learned when I did my second sock. I was glad. It was a difficult technique to learn and took up a lot of time to explain and demonstrate.

Anyway, the class was fun! Only one of us decided to use two circs. Everyone else chose single circ. It was difficult. I mean really really difficult. But it was so fun to be in a class when we teased each other on. When several people are frustrated at the same time, it can be really really funny.

I frogged what I did in the class and started the whole thing over at home. I wanted to take my time to go through every step so that I could understand it completely. I also found instructions on the internet for knitting two socks on one circ. Only two rows finished at this point, but I think I am beginning to like it very much. Just like learning to use the DPNs, this method takes time to get used to. Once you get into the flow, it's quite enjoyable.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean about the two at once being realy realy difficult. I was having a heck of a time with ONE on the two circs. (And I HATE circs now!) Bravo for you for taking them on. And the class itself sounds like fun, too.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jason, sounds like you had fun at the class. Knitting can be a solitary past-time, so it can be good to get out and knit with others. I haven't tried circulars for socks, one of the women in our knitting group was showing me how to do it last time, but I'm very happy with dpns. Of course I suffer greatly from the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome! I use the long tial cast-on but I must investigate the Norwegian one you mention.

Kerry

Jason said...

Dave, I am still struggling to do them correctly. Still liking it though. :-)

Kerry, I will post links to the tutorials on knitting two socks on one circ when I post the progress on my socks. Maybe you'll find them interesting.

Charles, you definitely should go if you have a chance. The owners and employees are all super nice.

Crafty Andy said...

Sounds like fun. Do them over enough times you will be a pro soon.

Jason said...

Hey Anday, I frogged it again and started over. I think this time it is coming out well. I paid close attention to each step to avoid problems.

City Wiccan said...

What a yarn store!! It looks really busy! Tons of stuff all crammed in.

Jason said...

Hey Matt, each time I look at the photos I see something that I didn't notice at the store!