The Emergency Yarn Order arrived on Saturday and, in yet another Astounding Yarn Miracle, is the SAME DYELOT. How lucky can a girl get? I may even have enough time to finish. If knitting on this scarf is all I do for the next three days. Unfortunately, life rarely permits a person to only do one thing and I have a pretty tight week scheduled. Add to that my Allergies (it’s not the goldenrod, it’s some other yellow thing that blooms at the same time). The SneezeNoMore Medicine has me feeling a little Wonky so it’s a good thing that the only mad skill required for a Hogwarts scarf is knitting in circles. I’m a third of the way along.

Lady Bird is included for scale.

I also ordered some Parade.

Blue for M and green for me! Doesn’t my mug look pretty?

I don’t really need any more sock yarn. I’ve got enough for at least five pairs of socks already, but Parade is sport weight! And self-striping! And Knitpicks has free shipping on $30 orders. I’m a sucker for free shipping.

Also of note: my Aunt and her Little Friend came over for a Knitting Lesson on Friday. I started them off learning the knit stitch with some leftover Rowan Biggie Print on #13s (10 inches long and plastic – short, light needles make for less Awkward learning). Their homework is to finish knitting the ball of yarn. I’ve ordered Lion Brand’s Landscapes in several different colorways (so they can pick) for scarves. In the next lesson, they’ll learn to cast on and then make a simple garter stitch scarf (counting their stitches ever few rows to make sure that the loose one on the edge hasn’t made them add an extra). I like to start people out on an easy project in a yarn with stitch definition (so they can see what they are doing) but a fair amount of interest (so that less-than-perfect craftsmanship is less-than-obvious). Even if they never make anything else in their entire lives, they will have a decent looking scarf that they can tell people they made. I also try not to spend too much on the yarn so that if they never finish, they didn’t blow $40 on materials. Once they’ve finished a scarf, then they can spend obscene amounts of money on Luxury Yarns and Hand Turned Needles. But until then, stick with the mid-range yarns and the lighter plastic needles. Keep the beginners away from large aluminum needles! All you get with that is a lot of swearing and throwing of projects. No one wants that – someone could loose an eye.