Aliens!

We were invaded by aliens Friday night!
But fear not!
Hubby knew how to deal with this chocolate menace from Mars...he bit off the leader's head!
Then mom, my niece,
and I joined the resistance fight.
We quickly beat back the invaders.
On Saturday, Hubby and I began the task of dismantling their spaceship.
We have not found a homing device or other emergency distress signal.
Which is a shame, because they were rather tasty.

Mean Aunt
Yep, mom and my niece came up Friday afternoon to reclaim my brother's Wii.
We were debating getting one, so he let us borrow his first. That did the trick—not what we were expecting. We were buying into the advertising about it making exercise fun, but it didn't work out that way for us. Although, to be fair, we never set up the Wii Fit or the Outdoor Adventure kit. Which shows you how quickly we lost interest.
We will continue to invest our money in wine and yarn instead. :-)
Anyway, I was cranky on Friday because that crazy weather last week was playing havoc with my head.
I got home and passed out for two hours, then after dinner I pulled out the second Damn Doily to finish the edging.
My niece says, "Teach me to knit."
I say, "No. I tried once and it was a disaster."
She says, "Pleeeease."
I say, "No. You're not old enough."
She pointed out she is almost 11. At that point, mom intervened and told her to leave me alone. So she got her book and sat quietly reading on the couch.
Then I started to feel guilty.
After all, I'm the only one on this side of the family who knits or crochets. If I don't teach her, who will? Really, I have an obligation.
Still, in my defense, it really was a disaster last time.
The attempt was a year or two ago with her and her younger brother.
They grabbed the needles at the far end, like baseball bats. For the life of me I couldn't get them to choke up on the needles and hold them near the points like pens.
As you can imagine, they made absolutely no progress at all. It was rather frustrating for all involved.

I'm Not All Bad
With guilt in hand, I trooped up the attic and dragged out some lavender acrylic, probably Red Heart, and some coral Wintuk.
Then I went to my notions drawer in the living room endtable and dug out sets of US6 and US9 aluminum needles I bought at a yard sale when I first learned to knit.
I was very bad and cast on for her—I didn't think I could handle the stress of trying to teach her the long-tail cast on.
This is "bad", in my opinion, because I believe you can't knit if you can't cast on.
Really, always having to have someone else start your projects? And you call yourself a knitter?
I think people who teach other people to knit but don't teach them to cast on aren't doing the learner any favors.
Which just shows you how cranky I was to skip this important step.
Then I demonstrated a knit stitch and handed her the lavender yarn and the US9.
She actually picked it up fairly quickly.
Oh sure, things were slipping and dropping, but she persevered.
I ended up switching her to the US6 and coral yarn and that worked out better for her. I think the US9 was too big for the weight of yarn.
The slippery aluminum needles probably weren't helping, either.
Mom has some thicker yarn and US15 bamboos at her house. We think that will make it a little easier for the niece, since the bamboo needles will have more traction.
So I may have unleashed a new knitter on the world.
We'll see what happens. I don't think she has anyone to help her out or encourage her. But you never know.