Laurel is a Knitting Savant

My friend Laurel is a knitting savant. I recently taught her how to knit while we were watching the Oscars. I don't know about you, but I didn't learn to knit while watching anything other than my needles from about 2 mm away. I taught her the long-tail cast-on. She did it. And even taught me some trick about how many inches of a long tail you need per stitch, which I promptly forgot. Then I taught her the knit stitch and look what she did:


Click for the Big Photo to see how EVEN HER STITCHES ARE!!!

She knit a freakin' hat. For a baby. I myself knit nothing proper for human consumption for MONTHS after I learned how to knit.

The teapot is courtesy of someone in Ike's family, or maybe Ike, I'm not sure. They're all artists and live this totally bohemian lifestyle in Iowa. Ike's mom goes to Knitting Camp, and she's a knitting goddess. I think she knows Elizabeth Zimmerman by maybe a degree of separation or two.


Click for the Big Photo to see how SYMMETRICAL AND EVEN HER DECREASES ARE

Laurel decreased on her first project! Do you have any idea how many scarves I knit before I had the balls to decrease?!?

And to add insult to injury:


Laurel is smokin'-hot

Laurel looks way hotter than I did when I shaved my head. And while I did it for teenaged rebellion, Laurel did it to raise money for kids with cancer. And she's smokin' hot, even when post-call and I'm springing the flash on her.

For further evidence that Laurel is a knitting savant, moments after she finished her first project (which only took her two weeks, maybe, including time for me to finally show up and teach her how to use double pointed needles, which she did on her FIRST PROJECT EVER), she launched into her second project, a super soft hat for her lovely and newly bald head. She demonstrated supreme taste by choosing a lovely shade of Cascade Chunky Alpaca. I told her "Cast on 72 stitches." She did it, without me having to remind her how. I showed her one purl stitch. She purled a few rows, without me reminding her how. I said, "Knit 6, purl 2 around." She did it, deftly switching between knit and purl.

She's doing a truly amazing job AND enjoying it. I'm super proud of Laurel, and her new-found talent in knitting, and I'm very lucky to have Laurel and Ike as my family in Portland.