Making Scarves At The Mansion….

I was looking forward to bringing the loop yarn to the Mansion today.  It’s a special yarn that you can “knit” with using your fingers.

I bought enough yarn so six people could make a scarf.  The process seemed pretty easy, I watch a video on YouTube to see how it worked and did a few sample rows using one skein of yarn.

There are some people who usually come to my classes at The Mansion who don’t have full movement in their hands, but I figured that if they showed up, Julie, the activities director and I could make a scarf for them.

But demonstrating the process, which involves pulling one loop of yarn through another, I could immediately see that it would be harder for people to do,  than I anticipated.  It turned out that I really needed to help everyone individually.

Even with Julie helping me, Madeline and Tim quickly lost interest and when I looked up for working with Claudia, they had both moved on.

Both Claudia and Georgiana gave up on making a scarf and got creative, pulling the loops, not in a row, but however they felt like.  Claudia made a snake and Georgiana a placemat.

Julie worked with Nancy and made a scarf, although it turned out to be much shorter than I thought it would so I tied the ends together making it a cowl.

I left a bunch of yarn with Julie, I’m sure she’ll find someone else who wants to try making a scarf on these cold winter days.

Some projects I bring to The Mansion work out better than others.  But still, we had fun and for a little while, a few people were doing something they had never done before.  Halfway through the class, Jon showed up with Zinnia who made the rounds then fell asleep at his feet.

My first thought after the class was that next time we’d do something simpler.  But I don’t really want to think that way.  It’s always satisfying when people have created something they like at the end of the hour.  But I think sometimes trying something new, even if it doesn’t work out the way I’d hoped, is just as important.