Crochet Fun

Tonight's sock class was a blast. We had a lot of fun AND got the first half of the sock done. My plan was to get the cuff, heel flap and heel turn done tonight so we would just have the gusset, foot and toe to do next week. Everyone made it to the heel, so 'homework' is to finish the heel flap and try to do the turn. We'll start with either the turn or the gusset next week, depending on where everyone is. I think that will still give us enough time to complete the sock.
The five ladies have varying degrees of experience, but they all were enthusiastic and jumped right in learning the new stitches. The socks start with a double crochet foundation stitch rather than the usual chain stitch. I was pretty sure this would be new to everyone. Sandy was already there when I finished teaching a private lesson, so I showed her the stitch before class started. The other four staggered their arrivals so that I was able to show it to each of them individually. (Thanks, ladies!) That definitely worked out well. Trying to teach that stitch to them as a group would have been tricky, especially with the thin sock yarn we were using. Another thing that worked well was the worsted weight scrap yarn I brought for them to practice on. It's so much easier to learn when the yarn is thick enough that you can actually see the stitches you're making.

I was amazed at how well they all did. Of the five stitches we used tonight, four were new to most of them. Nobody got frustrated, no one gave up and they all "got" the new stuff by the end of class. Mandy even liked her sock cuff so well, she decided to use it as a bracelet. That should impress her students tomorrow.