So I told you awhile back about my mother learning to knit. Her first project? A vest! Seriously…and she actually finished it. I am really really proud of her and her new found knitting skills. She didn’t even whine about how long it took vs crochet. (She feels crochet is superior because it is faster). Here is her vest in all its glory:

She then moved right into lace. Lace? Yes, lace. I guess my drive and ambition comes from my mother. Someone had left a skein of Malabrigo Lace in the back room for staff to take, and she wanted desperately to knit with it. She chose the Emily Shawl pattern from the Best of Knitscene book. She then proceeded to learn about brackets in a pattern and that they indicate section repeats; she learned to read charts and work lace increases and decreases…all while actually knitting the shawl. Whenever she didn’t have any boxes to unpack or shelves to restock, my mom was sitting in our classroom space working on her shawl and asking random questions of the staff who happened to walk buy. It didn’t take her long to knit this thing…rather amazing really. I don’t know what she is plotting next. Perhaps intarsia?