Sandy, I can't figure out how to respond to you personally about Brandywine, so here is my answer. Yes, there are YO's on the center stitch in Chart A. That threw me a bit at first also, but plough onwards. Those are meant to be there. The only glitch I found was on Row 37 where it seems to me that a YO/SSK is missing from the top of a diamond pattern.
We've been having a busy week with family. My husband's sister and 3 of her children have been here from the Southwest. The 20 year old and 10 year old wanted to learn to knit. THEY asked me! We started on hats. Youngest Niece was so cute as she chose some vibrant colors from my basket. I thought her hat might end up looking like a gang hat. When she added the green stripe it seemed to come together. I said, "You had that planned all along, didn't you?" She replied, "No, and knitting with the green made me feel weird." After the stripes I had to take over and finish up the hat as she was rarin' to go on Project #2. I told her that was not a good idea to start another project before finishing the first one, but we would make an exception since they were leaving town. Last night we started on her Tooley Owl. It turns out her mother has a friend who is a knitter and general all-round crafter, so Marni will have some help when she gets home. She was so happy with her hat that she wore it yesterday and today--in 90 degree heat! What a great little gal.
Meanwhile Elysha made a lot of progress on her hat with a color pattern. I'm proud of her! She is definitely going to be a knitter!While teaching them to knit I came up with a memorable way to illustrate gauge. That seems more like podcast fodder than blog fodder, but here's a shot at it. The basic idea was to have all three of us stand at the same point and take 10 steps forward. We all ended up in different places. I explained that is what it would be like if our steps were stitches. One knitter's 10 stitches would be bigger than another's. Then I explained that the needle size is just an average, a guideline, and they should experiment with different size needles to get the recommended gauge rather than change their knitting to be looser or tighter. I hope I got the point across. At any rate, we all needed a stretch and a wiggle at that point so it was a fun exercise.
I like it that they call me "Tante Paula". "Tante" is Danish/Norwegian for "Aunt". 
Yesterday we made lots of bubbles in the back yard. That was so much fun! It has been a long time since I've blown bubbles. We had the big wands and lots of strange-shaped wands also. I think bubble blowing should be a regular activity.
Yesterday we made lots of bubbles in the back yard. That was so much fun! It has been a long time since I've blown bubbles. We had the big wands and lots of strange-shaped wands also. I think bubble blowing should be a regular activity.
