teaching

I'm going to be teaching a knitting class (if anyone signs up, that is). It's going to be a beginner class for those that want to learn to knit. Back in the winter, Scoot's teacher in his tumble class learned that I knit and wanted to know if I would be interested in teaching a class. She is the owner of the business and offers a variety of classes mostly for kids, but does a few adult classes too. I told her I didn't think I was interested, but would think about it. Mainly, I doubt my ability to teach! She told me she used to have someone teach a knitting class several years ago, but the lady who taught it no longer wanted to do it.

It stayed in my mind though and at some point during the summer I decided What the hell? and told her I'd do it. We arranged the day and time for the fall session and that I would prefer to do only adults (or teenagers) at this point and perhaps offer it to kids later.

And then I haven't heard anything more about it and I've seen her and talked to her a few times since. I had sort of assumed she hadn't taken me seriously and/or she forgot (she can be a little bit spacey). Lo and behold, the flyer for the fall session appears in my mailbox Thursday and there it is: Knitting! Guess I'm teaching lol!

I'm glad that even though I wasn't 100% sure it was going to happen, I started thinking of what sort of projects we could do and keep the supply requirements to a minimum and inexpensive. I've finalized my plan this morning.

I decided we'd start with a pair of sideways garter stitch fingerless mitts (essential a garter rectangle which is then seamed together) to teach CO, knit stitch and BO (and seaming!). Next we'll do a striped, ribbed scarf to teach purling and joining in a yarn. Third we'll do a hat knit flat to teach decreasing and to hone all those previously learned skills.

The class is 8 weeks long, so I'm wondering if I shouldn't come up with a 4th project too (I'm leaning toward yes, but at a bit of a loss). I'm thinking two weeks per project should be good. I figure the first class I'll be going over some basics about knitting, then teaching CO and knit. The next class we'll go over the BO and then let them start their second mitt. (I realize not everyone is like me and wants to knit 24/7!), so I reckon I'll go over some things (like dropped stitches, etc.) during the second week of that. Then the third week we'll start the scarf and again have two weeks devoted to that, mainly because I think it will take them that long to complete it. Then we'll do the hat, which again, can last two weeks.

So that leaves two weeks. The problem is twofold: I want to leave a little leeway in case they're not getting projects done as quickly as my timeline dictates AND I don't want to make them spend much more money (I'm going with one needle size and one type of yarn for all projects, but I think they'll need 5 skeins - I've chose Lion Brand Wool Ease, which is a favorite of mine for certain types of projects because of it's softness and affordability).

I'm thinking right now that if I have a fourth project in reserves, that would be fine. That way it would be available if needed and if not, I could give it to them to do on their own after the class is over. I'm just not sure what else to do (I was trying to come up with something that would teach increases, but I'm lamely drawing a blank). Any ideas or suggestions for anything for the class would be greatly appreciated!

I'm super excited about this and I really hope some people sign up for it.