Not the knitting genius

I have a small local reputation as a person who knows a fair amount about knitting. This is mostly because a couple of other people I know, more skillful than I, aren't running around acting as knitting missionaries. They just sit quietly and turn out their impressive Norwegian sweaters and Arans. Me, I talk it up. "Sure you can knit socks - let me show you." "Dropped stitch? -No problem, here's what you do." It impresses the uninitiated, and I build a rep.


But I sort of met my match on Wednesday. L. was working her shift down at the River Valley Trading Co., and since things were slow decided to work on a shawl pattern for her spinning group's annual challenge. But she was perplexed by the directions for the cast on and gave me a holler and I went down, confident I could help her out.


The directions were something like "make a slip loop and work into it as if to knit, then as if to purl until you have 9 sts". Mind you, this was on a pattern that had been sold as relatively easy; and in fact the directions for the rest of the project were spelled out clearly and in detail, and were indeed quite simple. But the cast on directions were a bit opaque to an advanced beginner.


I, however, did know this cast on, at least in the sense that I recognized right away what the designer was after. This was familiar to me, not just vague gobbelty gook. It's a classic way to start a shawl worked outward from the center. I could remember reading the directions. I could almost visualize an illustration that's in one of my books (which book?). I clearly understood why the designer had chosen this cast on (to be able to go back and snug up those initial stitches.) The only problem was, I couldn't exactly do it. Oh, as I dropped my purse and plunked down in the chair, I thought I could. When I actually picked up yarn and needles, I couldn't. The really frustrating thing was that I almost had it. Nine stitches on a loop - no problem. Getting the loop to pull up snug - no way. Repeat with same results - several times.


So I finally did the sensible thing. Went home. Googled. Found Eunny Jang's deservedly renowned lace tutorial (now that woman is a knitting genius). Located the cast on I knew enough about to at least recognize - it's down near the bottom of this page. E-mailed the link to L. (And saw right away that my problem had been caused by working onto a slip knot, instead of just a loop of yarn. Doh!)


If I can't really be the walking knitting encyclopedia, maybe I'll settle for knitting reference librarian...