Knitting Knight

Did you know I can knit? ....I know, it surprises me too. Honestly, if someone would have told me three years ago that I would be a teacher, living in Egypt, and love knitting...I would have laughed.

But seriously, Seth's mom knitted me a scarf for Christmas when Seth and I were first together. I was so impresses with it that the next year for Christmas I asked if she'd teach me to knit. She didn't think she knew enough to teach so she got me an hour of knitting lessons. Suppose ably at the lesson I learned the basics of casting on, knit stitch, and binding off...but I was horrible at it and by far the worst in the class.

When we were moving to Egypt I wanted to bring a hobby along that wouldn't take up much room or cost too much. So I bought two "Knitting for Beginners" books and packed the one pair of knitting needles I had. I figured since I should be able to find all sorts of fancy Egyptian Cotton yarns that you're always hearing about, plus the fact that they have tons of sheep and lamas and other sources to make yarn out of; I thought it was the ideal hobby to do. But I soon to learned that you really can't find much Egyptian Cotton in Egypt (it's all exported). But after a lot of looking and asking I did finally find three decent little yarn shops in an area of town called Manchyae (market area). They have a decent selection and even some novelty yarns. They have several brands from Turkey, France and Germany, which is great because a lot of those brands are mega bucks back in the states and here they are supper cheap. I think the most expensive skein of yarn I've bought so far was about $2.50. However, it's nearly impossible to find needles and other knitting supplies here. So I just started practicing with some basic projects, reading the books and watching very helpful knitting video clips that I found on-line and I got better and better and started enjoying knitting a lot.

When we went home over Christmas I stocked up on knitting supplies. Seth's mom helped a lot, she knew a knitting store that was going out of business and got me a lot of great stuff for great deals. She also sewed me knitting needle holders for my straight and circular needles. I also got a lot of time to practice while hanging out at the hospital during Seth's dad surgery. I have now finished a couple scarves, a baby blanket, some baby hats, a purse, and a dog sweater.

I found out that a few other girls here also "kind of" know how to knit/crochet so I've started a Knitting Knight Club! There are five of us and we are meeting on Monday nights and we just started last week . I showed them my books, needles, projects, and some on-line sites that are very helpful and have free patterns. I also gave them a quick refresher course on the basics of knitting since they haven't done it for awhile and only knew a little. They each picked out a project that they want to start and this past weekend we all took the tram, which is a story in it's self, to the market area and got some yarn.

I was also watching baby Malcolm that night since his mom was sick and his dad was in Holland with the Model United Nations students. I felt very "domestic" knitting with a baby on my lap.

I'm really excited about our little group, we're all really good friends to begin with and it's great to have an excuse to have a girls night. Our husbands all like it too because they get together and play video games while we knit.

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