May 31st
Albaine: *walks into the clearing wearing sneakers, jeans, a t-shirt, and a cap that would normally shade his eyes from the sun if the sun hadn't have gone down an hour or so earlier*
Kara: *walks out, gaze passes over Albaine before snapping back half an instant later* . . . Albaine?
Albaine: *smiles slightly in amusement, then nods* Yes, it's me.
Kara: *smiles, shakes her head* I know you said you had other clothes, but it didn't really process.
Albaine: I understand. I get that a lot when I'm not in my normal outfit.
Kara: It's what happens when you have a type. You'd be surprised if I suddenly went Goth, right?
Albaine: *thinks for a moment* What's goth, exactly?
Kara: *frowns a moment* I don't have enough left to show you . . . But it's basically dressing all in black, including your hair and wearing dark eyeliner and other makeup to make you look particularly pasty. Spikes and chains optional.
Albaine: Oh. Well, then yes. I would be surprised if you showed up dressed like that.
Kara: *smiles* However, I prefer to stay to my style.
Albaine: *nods* People usually do.
Kara: Excluding those who dress solely to shock, although that is a kind of style of its own
Albaine: I've seen some of those people before. Most of it is terrible.
Kara: That's rather the point, I should think.
Albaine: *shrugs* You can shock people with unconventional outfits that aren't terrible looking.
Kara: I don't think they put that much thought into their wardrobe choices.
Albaine: Most don't. It's rather unfortunate, and sometimes disturbing.
Kara: *nods* Definitely.
Albaine: *nods, and remembers something* Oh, I couldn't find any books on either knitting or basket weaving while I was at Sara's house, unfortunately.
Kara: *smiles* Well, I did bring yarn today if you want me to show you.
Albaine: *smiles a bit back and nods* That'd be nice. *appreciates the effort, even if it messes up*
Kara: *rummages around in her pockets for a moment before withdrawing two knitting needles attached to a skein of blue yarn very messily* . . . I am so bad at this. *removes the needles while muttering imprecations*
Albaine: I'm sure everyone has something they're terrible at even with practice. *watches*
Kara: Too much practice seems to be the problem . . . Ah, gotcha! *finally extricates needles*
Albaine: Ah. *gets what she means, and smiles when she frees the needles, jokes around* Step one completed?
Kara: *fusses around with the yarn for a minute, holds up an end in triumph* Now step one is complete,
Albaine: *suddenly glad he doesn't have a noisemaker or else he probably would have played it in triumph, suppresses the silly impulse* Ah, right. So step two would be to... *can't seem to see any hole on the needle to thread yarn through, and hazards a guess* ...wrap or tie the yarn to the needles?
Kara: Pretty much. Now we have to cast on our first stitch, like so. *wraps the yarn twice around her first two fingers, making an "X"* Now we put the needle under the yarn and twist it out . . . *yarn falls off* . . . Okay, we twist it the other way through our fingers.
Albaine: *watches intently* Does wrapping the yarn around your fingers make it easier to get it on the needle the way it needs to be? *guessing there's more to it than just getting the yarn on the needle*
Kara: You need to loop it on in a way which is rather difficult without the wrapping. You ever notice how knitted things have a distinct pattern? *fussing with the yarn*
Albaine: *nods, suspicions confirmed* I've noticed.
Kara: So if you don't cast on the stitch in the same way you actually knit, part of the finished product, albeit a small one, will look funny. Aha! *holds out the needle triumphantly, yarn looped over the needle with a horizontal loop underneath*
Albaine: I understand. *looks over the needle* ...I'm guessing that learning just from a book would be a bit difficult to figure out.
Kara: *nods* Our human did it wrong for years. She kept wondering why she was getting two stitches out of it. *smiles* She purled five rows before noticing she had started with six stiches wide and ended with eleven.
Albaine: Huh. *barely followed any of that, though not for a lack of trying* So she had to go back and undo all that...or just throw away the yarn I guess.
Kara: Undoing stuff is easy; you just take the knitting off the needle and tug. But as she was practicing, she just incorporated increasing into her project.
Albaine: Ah, alright.
Kara: Anyway . . . *looks back at her solitary stitch;mutters* okay, how few can I get away with?
Albaine: *watches again, guessing that the muttering is her speaking to herself*
Kara: Okay, we're going to put on nine more stitches. *knits a stitch before slipping it onto the left needle exactly qas the video showed*
Albaine: Alright. *watches carefully* ... *trying to decide whether the technique demonstrated is simple or complicated*
Kara: *carefully and slowly puts on the remaining eight stitches* There.
Albaine: And that's step three done. *honestly hasn't decided what he thinks of step 3* Does it get more complicated from here? *guessing it does*
Kara: For basic knitting, not really. It's just doing that, only you don't switch it off the needle; purling just is just knitting in reverse.
Albaine: Ah, alright. So once you get the hang of making stitches it's just a matter of keeping everything from getting messed up?
Kara: *nods* Pretty much. Dropping stitches will mess you up too; *eyes go distant a moment* I had to redo half a piece once because one dropped stitch near unravedlled the entire thing.
Albaine: Wow. *wonders how much time it took to notice and fix the error* Aggravating.
Kara: *nods* Rather. If you catch it early, you can fix it without undoing everything, but . . . *shrugs*
Albaine: It sounds like the sort of think that's more likely to happen if you're multitasking, would would make catching it early somewhat more difficult.
Kara: *smiles* Ironically, you're more likely to notice if you're a beginner. Once you get good enough, it's . . . Second nature? You don't have to think about it; you don't even have to look.
Albaine: *nods, understanding this completely* There are a lot of things like that. Sometimes while cooking you'll miss a step if it's been a while since you cooked it but feel confident that you know the recipe.
Kara: Yes, exactly.
Albaine: And then a friend laughs at you until you remind him that he nearly burned down the place the last time he attempted. *smirks slightly at this somewhat humorous image of getting Blazon to shut up quickly, then resumes a normal expression as he gets back to the topic at hand* Anyways...next is just to knit until completion? For basic stuff, I mean.
Kara: *nods* If you're working from a pattern, it will let you know precisely what you should be doing, but for simple things, yes.
Albaine: *nods* Alright. What do you do once you've knitted it as long as you want it to be?
Kara: Then you start casting off, or binding off, same thing.
Albaine: Oh. Well I guess that makes sense. *wonders why he thought it'd be different*
Kara: It's- *stares at her needles for a moment in panic* I need more than this to practice on!
Albaine: *nods* Of course. *wasn't expecting her to demonstrate right this moment*
Kara: *stares at the needles like they're going to bite her* Um . . . You try now. *proffers*
Albaine: *blinks a bit, and takes the needles* From the start, right?
Kara: *nods* Yes, that would be best. So you're sure you'll know what you're doing by yourself.
Albaine: *nods and carefully removes the yarn from the needle, pauses slightly as if preventing himself from doing something, and attempts to replicate the formation Kara started out with on his left hand*
Kara: *watches like a hawk, frowning slightly*
Albaine: *slightly unnerved by being watched so intently as he is not used to it but ignores it mostly* .... *after a time the formation is replicated, and he looks up for confirmation* Is this correct?
Kara: *leans in to look at it closely* It seems to be accurate, yes.
Albaine: *nods* Okay, that's good. Now to get it on the needle... *holds the needle in his right hand and puts the needle under the yarn, but pauses as he tries to remember how to twist it out*
Kara: *watching intently*
Albaine: *attempts to twist the needle out but ultimately finds it too awkward to do using his right hand* ...okay, that's not going to work out... *removes the yarn from his left and wraps the same way on his right hand, switching the needle to the left hand*
Kara: *rolls her eyes* You could've told me you're a lefty.
Albaine: I didn't really think of it at the time, it's usually not an issue. *pauses a moment, and puts the needle under the yarn on the upper left portion of the x, over the bottom right portion, and spreads his fingers a bit to put it over the yarn on the other side, then pulls up on the needle a bit as he pulls his fingers out of the yarn, pulling on the 2 loose ends a bit to tighten the knot* ... *wonders what he did wrong, if anything*
Kara: I'm ambi, I could've shown you the other way. *studies the stitch* It looks about right.
Albaine: Really? Neat. *thinks that would be a useful trait to have, looks back down at the needles and tries to recall how to cast on the rest of the stitches, failing somewhat* ... *just starts off with what he remembers, wrapping around the thumb and pushing the needle up through the center of the loop* And now...put the other string over it?
Kara: I had to train myself to it, but yes. *watches* Yeah.
Albaine: That must have taken time. *puts the string over the loop and nearly asks what to do next before realizing that putting the loop around the needle is the only logical step from there, follows his gut and slips the loop onto the needle, pulling it tight* Huh, that wasn't too bad.
Kara: *shrugs carelessly* I guess. Worth it, tho. Excellent.
Albaine: Of course. *simply repeating the steps from the last stitch* Yeah, I can see what you mean about being able to do this without looking once you're used to it.
Kara: *nods* It's simple enough once you have the hang of it.
Albaine: The same can be said for nearly everything.
Kara: Some things are complicated but you just know exactly how they work.
Albaine: *nods* True. I'm guessing math is mostly like that. *still working on those last stitches*
Kara: The higher levels probably; science too.
Albaine: Another thing I haven't learned much about, though I've heard that science and math go hand in hand.
Kara: True enough. Attempting to master advanced science without a math background is something of a disaster.
Albaine: I'll bet. *finishes casting off the 9th stitch*
Kara: *grins* Well, you're certainly doing better than my last attempt.
Albaine: *smiles* Thanks, though I haven't a clue where to go from here.
Kara: Oh, I can explain well enough, it just doesn't work when I try.
Albaine: *feels that this doesn't give him much hope of success, but is prepared to try* Okay, may I have an explanation?
Kara: What you were just doing? Keep doing exactly that, only instead of putting the stitch onto the other needle, keep it on and slide the previous stitch off.
Albaine: *takes a moment to think that over, looks at the needles wondering which is the other needle "Tomoe" is speaking of and where he's sliding these stitches off to* ...do what now?
Kara: Okay. *points at the needle he's been casting the stiches onto* You know how you've been transferring stitches onto this needle? Instead of doing that, you just slide the previous stitch off with the other needle. Basically, you're transferring the stitches between the two needles.
Albaine: Oh. So just put all of these stitches onto the other needle the same way I put the stitches onto the first needle to begin with?
Kara: Pretty much, yes.
Albaine: Ah. *looks at the needles, and figures that the loop in the stitch probably counts looping it around his thumb, sticks the needle up through loop, puts the string between the two needles, and moves the needle to the other side of the loop* Like that? *figures he'd ask before pushing the stitch off the needle*
Kara: Yes, exactly.
Albaine: *nods* Great. *slides the stitch off the needle* That’s not too bad. *was expecting worse*
Kara: I told you it was pretty simple.
Albaine: I know, I just take the word simple with a grain of salt. It tends to vary from person to person.
Kara: Up until I tell you flying is simple, you can usually trust my opinion. *smiles*
Albaine: *smiles back* I'll keep that in mind.
Kara: *mock severely* See that you do.
The Human Sara: *hands Albaine a book* You need to read this! D8< *walks away*
Albaine: *blinks as the book is shoved into his arms, looks at the book* ...The Hitchhiker's Guide?
Kara: *looks interested* I've heard that it's a good book.
Albaine: Really? I haven't heard of it before. I suppose I'll have to read it.
Kara: *somewhat wistfully* Let me know how it is, will you?
Albaine: *nods* Sure thing. I'll let you know how it is.
Kara: Thank you.
Albaine: *looks up at the sky* I should probably get to bed. Do I give these back?
Kara: *waves a hand negligently* Nah, you can keep them if you want. To practice with.
Albaine: *nods* Alright. Have a good night. *waves*
Kara: Good night then. *waves*
