I shall build an army!

I have been waiting and hoping and saving up to reveal my newest FO, Red Fish Blue Fish baby blanket, for quite a while, and guess what? We'll all have to wait a bit longer because this morning I pulled it from the washing machine after a cold wash/rinse/low agitation cycle to find this:


Oh, the horror!!! I don't even want to think about how this will fare further washings. I will try to repair this the best I can and offer the mother free hand-washings to stave off future unraveling. I can't even say how or why this happened, except that I have always sucked at finishing a piece. Totally bummed.

Also in the "I don't wanna" pile:


It's absolutely adorable and a quick, pleasurable knit. I've grafted the shoulders together, and now all that remains is setting in the sleeves and seaming up the sides. Blech. I think I have some laundry that needs folding instead....

So, I've accidentally started a knitting club. A few of the girls at school have marveled over my meager handful of knitted clothing and accessories and many have asked for me to teach them, to which I always answer "of course." Now, that cycle of swoon--question--answer has repeated uneventfully for several months, but one dear, pushy child, C, showed up in my room during recess with itchy fingers. A delightful lesson took place, and we agreed to meet up the next day. That recess rolls around, and sweet M scurries in to join C and me for knitting. As we leave my room that afternoon, D and S spy our armfuls of yarn and request a lesson next. The next day, C, M, D, and S all knit happily while H and A drift in saying, "Oh, I learned to knit once. I'll come tomorrow, and you can reteach us." So now my hands are full with 6 chatty, uncoordinated, but earnest tweens, oohing over each other's bright plastic needles and pink-swirled acrylic yarn. They're knitting at lunch, cheerleading practice, in the car, standing over the toaster in the morning. It's causing so much attention and buzz, random 5th, 7th, and 8th graders have started coming up to me asking, "So, I hear you're starting a sewing club?"