When asked to volunteer…

Monday, November 23rd, 2009 | Uncategorized

Recently I got an email for Stephanie at Unwind asking for volunteers to help teach knitting during the Magnolia Holiday In The Park. Basically, people from all over visit different shops in the Magnolia Park district and collect stamps for different things. This year Unwind participated by offering free knitting lessons.

Well since Stephanie knows I am always up for a challenge, she scheduled me to sit and teach this cute 70-something couple. Where is the challenge? They were both deaf.

Boy, was I bummed I couldn’t remember the ASL I took in college. I can barely finger spell!

They were lovely people, and super funny! It was a challenge to try and explain how to get started. There was a lot of writing notes and back and forth…and when the husband had a hard time getting the hang of things (he was also a lefty) the wife wrote that it was because he was old.

Our twenty minutes turned into an hour. After she got the hang of knitting a few rows she wrote about how she and her husband had both been deaf since birth. She explained to me how she grew up watching her father read the paper and her grandmother knit while everyone listened to the radio. Then television came and she still couldn’t figure it all out. She explained how happy she was when closed captioning was rolled out. I told her about my friend Juline, who works as a captioner.

It was really a fascinating night.

So…what have I *actually* been knitting. I started a Whisper Cardigan…and I just finished Little Miss Green Jeans for my friend Wendy’s soon-to-be little girl.