Humor – Page 2 – Mamas2Hands

That is Why You Count

April 16, 2016Crochet, Humor1 Comment

It’s been a lovely week weather wise. Down in town many of the flowering trees were in blown and lots of bulbs had made an appearance.

Thursday was really amazing down in Boulder, it was in the high 70s for temperatures (up on the mountain it was in the 60s) and I had a lovely walk at one of my favorite parks where I took the above photos. There had been warnings all week that a big snow storm was moving in this Friday, so I wanted to enjoy as much of the gorgeous weather as possible.

I had hoped to finish my Playing with Triangles Shawl in Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice worsted yarn today. It seemed a very good idea to have a warm shawl to wrap up in as the storm is supposed to stay with us until Tuesday. Fortunately the boys have a long weekend off from school, so at least we weren’t going to be driving up and down the mountain in the snow.

Friday morning I woke up to sunshine, but it was definitely colder than it had been Thursday morning. By early evening, we had 5 inches of snow. So the boys and I spent the day staying warm inside and watching shows on Netflix. I was crocheting on my shawl.

I had decided to make this shawl as large as my yarn stash would allow. I had 7 balls of the color I had chosen and had worked the body of the shawl for 52 rows using 6 balls and starting into the 7th ball. I was so happy to start on the border because I thought I was nearly finished with the shawl.

I was rocking along on the border and then I realized that I had a problem with my stitch count. According to my stitch pattern I had a single crochet stitch where the blue dot is, but my single crochet should have ended up where the first red dot is then I would have 3 V-stitches in the chain space where the red arch was with another single crochet in the next red dot.

I ended up counting my stitches and rows again to figure out if I had mis-counted my rows originally. But I had counted the rows correctly. Unfortunately I was on an even row, but I had an un-even number of V-stitches in the first side of my shawl. When working the body of this shawl each row should give you the same number of V-stitches along one side as the number of the row. So I should have had 52 V-stitches along the side instead of the 53 I had. Somewhere I had added a stitch.

Now I had to find where I had messed up. I laid the shawl out on the surface of my bed and marked the center point of every 10th row. Then counted the V-stitches to either side until I found where I had messed up. Unfortunately I found it on the 21st row.

I had been crocheting along and slipped into working stacked instead of staggered V-stitches, then switched back to staggered. If I had been counting my V-stitches along the sides regularly I might have caught my mistake sooner. I debated about if I was going to tear-out all the work I had crocheted on the shawl after the mistake. But I knew I would end up doing it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon pulling out my work and winding up the yarn. This is a photo of all the rewound yarn and what my work-in-progress looks like now. Maybe I’ll get it finished this weekend while we wait out the snow-storm. You’d better believe I’ll be counting my stitches at least every 10 rows to be sure I haven’t goofed again.

Sometimes even “expert” crocheters need a reminder that counting is important.

Lamb my __!

March 29, 2016Chocolate, HumorLeave a Comment

You know that old saying? “March comes in like a Lion but goes out like a Lamb.” Not the way it is looking up here on my mountain this final week of March. Now, this really isn’t anything new for us on the mountain, we generally have an insanely cold snowy spring-time.

In fact we really only get about 3 weeks of what most folks view as Spring weather, then we are straight into Summer for about 6 weeks, another 3 possibly 4 weeks of Fall, and right back into Winter (weather if not officially the season). Which means if you do the math, out of 52 weeks in the year, we have about 39 weeks of Winter on my mountain.

Normally I don’t mind the cold. A very good thing being as I have made my home on a mountain in the Colorado Rockies at 8500 feet above sea level. But Spring is a little hard on me, I’ve usually reached my tolerance for cold and snow by the end of March.

I think it is worse this year because we had a lovely “false” spring that had me ready for the real thing, even though I knew it was all a lie. It is snowy and cold and I’m cranky.

I even ate my chocolate bunny from Easter faster than normal and that barely helped. I ended up with chocolate stains on my white T-shirt. Which means there will be stain removal work before washing that load of laundry tomorrow.

Now, feeling frustrated with winter isn’t really a crisis, and I’m trying to remind myself that there are a lot of things in my very fortunate life to be grateful for. I seem to go thru some version of spring cabin fever every year, it used to mystify me…now I just remind myself that this too shall pass. In fact, just wait a few months, I’m sure I’ll be whinging about the heat. Then I’ll be happy to have my nice cool mountain top when everyone in the city and plains is cooking in 100+F temperatures.

I’ve spent the past couple of days crocheting on samples and working on some videos. I had hoped to have something new to share with all of my lovely readers, but it was not to be the case. Besides the wintery weather I’ve had a sick kiddo, and one of those times in creative work where every task takes longer than anticipated.

Hopefully I will get my act together this week and have something for you this weekend. I’ll be headed to Loveland, Colorado for the Interweave 2016 YarnFest. Looking forward to seeing some of local yarnie friends and some that are coming in nationally to teach or have booths in the Marketplace. Should be the perfect cure for the spring-time blues.

Also for those of you too far away from Colorado to join us for YarnFest, you might want to make plans for a trip to Charleston for the CGOA Conference at the Knit & Crochet Show. Registration is live already and some of the classes have already sold out. So pop on over to the CGOA site to get signed up.

Being Lucky

February 16, 2016Humor, Latest News2 Comments

Today went a bit differently than planned. I got up and after the normal morning tasks loaded the kids and my gear in the car to take them to school. As many of you know, I live on a mountain, so driving the boys to school can take 30-45 minutes or occasionally longer.

The weather was beautiful the past couple of days so there really wasn’t much to deal with as far as snow and ice and we made it down the mountain in good time. I dropped off both boys and then headed back up the mountain to my friend Val’s house.

Val and I get together most Tuesday mornings to work on crochet projects and visit. Today’s plan was to block a couple of new designs that I have due soon. Val has a nice big workspace, so she had volunteered her floor for this.

Unfortunately the universe had different plans for me. I was just about half way up the first big hill heading up into the mountains when my car suddenly began to seriously misbehave. Seemed like every warning light that is on my dash lit up. There was also a horrible burning rubber smell, not something one wants to smell while driving a vehicle.

I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I knew I needed to get off the road quickly and safely. So I pulled off and shut the car off.

Next, I checked my phone to see if I had any cel service where I was. I had a very low signal, but was able to call Val to let her know I was having car difficulties and wouldn’t be able to make it up to her house. Next I tried to call my husband, but the phone wouldn’t let me call out. Instead I got a message that said, “Emergency calls only.”

Things didn’t seem dire enough to call 9-1-1 though, so I got back in the car to look for my roadside assistance info. When I tried the phone again I was able to call my husband, then the roadside folks.

It took awhile to get them all the info they needed to send a tow vehicle to me, and we got cut off in the middle of the call. Fortunately my husband was able to text me, so I wasn’t completely on my own. Though I was wondering how in the world I was going to make all the appointments I had planned for the afternoon.

I decided to try texting my contacts that the appointments were with, and happily it worked. So that was one worry off my mind, now I just needed to get the roadside assistance folks moving.

By this time my engine had cooled down enough I decided to look under the hood to see if there was any way to drive the car back down the hill. But I discovered that the problem was the belt had broken and tangled in the engine. No way was I going to attempt driving my massive car without power-steering.

I sat there for a while and had a talk with myself about how lucky I was despite this inconvenience.

Point 1) I was super lucky that the belt hadn’t broken when I was driving at speed. Going uphill at 30 mph was a much better and safer situation than on the highway at 55 or 65 mph.

Point 2) At least I had some cel service, I could have been a lot further along the mountain or even in the canyon when this happened.

Point 3) The boys were already at school before the car pooped out.

Point 4) Neither of my afternoon appointments were life and death, and I would definitely have something resolved by the time the boys needed to be picked up from school.

Point 5) I was only about 3-4 miles from my favorite car repair place, so if I had to, I could walk there.

Then the phone rang, it was the roadside assistance folks calling me back. They had been trying for a while, but kept going to Voice mail because of the poor signal. Luckily they had kept trying. We got a tow truck lined up and they told me I would get a text once the tow company was on its way.

The text came thru, but it was only a confirmation and a URL to monitor progress. There definitely wasn’t any internet access where I was. So I texted the URL info to Himself. He was able to check on the status and let me know what was happening. Text service was patchy, but working a bit better than voice.

Finally all I had left to do was wait for the tow service to arrive. I am always prepared for a wait though, I had 3 different crochet projects along with me (as well as my computer). I crocheted and worked on pattern editing while I waited. Now you knew there would be crochet somewhere in this story. Unfortunately I can’t show you what I was crocheting on since it is all hush-hush until it is published.

About the time I was starting to worry that the tow service driver had gotten lost he pulled up. In just a few minutes he had my car all trussed up like an oversized turkey and we made the short drive to Super Rupair.

The folks at Super Rupair were super as always. They got me set up with a loaner car. Again I was lucky, they were having a slow day and would be able to fix everything by the end of the day. I took the loaner car and headed out to my appointments. While waiting for my second appointment I had a conversation with a goose.

After I was all finished with my appointments I picked up my boys after school without any problem. I took the boys to Subway for an early dinner, then we went to Super Rupair to get my car. They had just finished up with it and 10 minutes later we were on the road home.

Things I learnt from today’s adventure:

Always carry my hiking boots in the back of the car, even if the weather is unusually warm and I don’t think I’ll need them. I would have been more up for a hike down to the garage if I had my boots with me instead of wearing loafers.

It’s good to have snacks with me in the car, just in case.

And confirmation of my rule about always having a crochet project along with me. I would have been much more stressed if I didn’t have my crochet to focus on.

I hope all my readers are having a good week so far and this story will be a reminder to you than no matter what, there is always a bit of luck.

2016 Begins

January 1, 2016February 4, 2020Humor, Latest News1 Comment

Hope all my readers have had a good start to 2016. I have had a very interesting end to 2015.

When I posted before the holidays I had a brilliant plan, which of course means that said plan would be quickly and completely demolished. Isn’t there a proverb about “if you want to make the Divine laugh, make a plan.”? Certainly seems that way for most of my 2015 and the last 2 weeks proved to be no different. Sure hope the Divine is having a good laugh. Clearly I am getting many opportunities to practice my “letting go of perfect” pledge.

First off I did manage to get most of my gift items finished in time for Christmas, and had our guest room ready for my lovely in-laws visit. After those successes things got a little interesting. Starting with the in-laws arrival.

They made it to Denver without any problems and my husband took our SUV to pick them up at the airport the Monday evening before Christmas. They stopped at the grocery in Boulder to pick up a few items and while there my Father-in-Law (Baba) took a fall in the parking lot. He wouldn’t go to the hospital at that time, but by the morning he was admitting that he was hurt worse than he thought.

The plan for that Tuesday was decorating the Christmas tree with Nana and Baba and me going to town for an appointment and errands for the big day. Instead it was about getting Nana and Baba to the hospital emergency room for X-rays, stitches and a splint for some broken bones in his hand. Fortunately with some help from my sister-in-law we worked out all the logistics without too much headache for any one person.

The boys made cookies with Nana. — The kids made cookies with Nana.

The rest of the week went a little better. We had a fun Christmas with a house full of family. By the end of Christmas day I was feeling a bit worn down and the Sunday after Christmas I realized I was really coming down with a cold. I said good-bye to my in-laws Monday morning when they left for the airport, and went back to bed.

My grand plan for that Monday until New Year’s Day was to get lots of work done while the kids were still on school break. Unfortunately this week has instead been the “Graves Zombie Household” with both Himself and I down with this nasty virus.

Until today I was hopeful that the kids had escaped the virus, but it looks like my oldest may have been infected. I suspect my youngest is the one that gave it to us. He has always been good about sharing. He is bouncing around like a happy little puppy while the rest of us are snuffly and sneezy.

Fortunately colds do eventually run their course, and I am feeling a bit better today This is good, as I am headed to San Diego next Friday for the TNNA Winter Trade Show. Lots to get done in the next 6 days before then.

Tomorrow I finish taking the Christmas Tree down. Though I am enjoying one last night of the beautiful lights before it is down til next Christmas.

Though 2015 has been full of surprises and ended with more of a whimper than a bang, I am very optimistic about 2016. I hope to have lots of fun designs, videos, classes and some surprises to share with all of you very soon.

A bit of My History – RSI and Crochet

September 29, 2015April 2, 2020Crochet, Health and Self Care, Humor8 Comments

There are a number of reasons that I started applying my training as a medical massage therapist to my crochet obsession. The main one though is my own experience with repetitive stress injury. When I was working full-time as a massage therapist 16 years ago I came near to causing myself permanent injury.

Repetitive stress injuries are very common in the massage therapy field. The last time I was researching the numbers on longevity for massage therapists I found that most work only a short time in the field. 2-4 years is often the typical life-span of a massage career, not all of them end due to injury, but that is a factor for many of them.

When I was in school at the Boulder College of Massage Therapy one of the things that was emphasized in our training was how to care for ourselves to avoid injury. Of course, my trouble didn’t come from my massage work, it came from crocheting.

I had made an ambitious decision to crochet afghans as gifts for a number of my close friends and family members for Christmas. Once the weather got cold they were particularly enjoyable projects. I would snuggle under the afghan as I was working on it. Unfortunately, the holidays were speedily catching up to me, so I was crocheting every spare hour I could find.

I didn’t realize at the time that I had some very bad habits in the way that I was holding my yarn and hook. Those habits might have gone un-remarked, except I was also crocheting for long stretches of time without taking a break. Now, for any of you that have attended one of my presentations about avoiding injury when crafting, you’ve likely spotted a number of red-flags in the previously described scenario.

One of the reasons that I’ve made it my mission to talk to fiber loving folks about how we craft and how to avoid injury when we are crafting, is because I came so close to losing my beloved crochet craft. In short I hurt myself badly. The pain got to the point that I had difficulty working at my occupation of massage therapy. So of course I went to see a doctor. First thing he said after our initial interview was that I would need to stop crocheting.

I asked if he meant just for a little while. His response was in the negative. His advice was that I should give up crocheting, basically forever. “After all, you are a young woman, and crocheting and knitting are for old ladies.”

Okay, stop laughing, I know you all are envisioning my response to that statement. Especially those of you that have met my rather “salty” side. Needless to say I fired that doctor.

Next I sought out a doctor that dealt with sports medicine. These doctors are trained to look at root causes of injury, so that the activity can continue but in a way that doesn’t cause further injury. Generally this work means improving the mechanics of movements involved in the “sport” of choice. In my case that meant crocheting.

First off, I did need to take a break from crochet, I couldn’t crochet for the entire month of January and the first 2 weeks of February. I was really missing my hooks and yarn. In the meantime my doctor had me doing daily contrast baths on my wrists and forearms everyday that I did massage work.

This involved filling a big pan with cold water and ice, then filling the sink with hot water that wouldn’t scald me. I would submerge my entire forearm, wrist and hand in the ice-cold water for as long as I could tolerate it, about 30 seconds. Then move to the hot water bath for 30 seconds. I would go back and forth between the 2 temperatures, ending with the cold bath.

I know it might sound like torture, but it actually helped a great deal. You don’t even have to be injured for contrast baths to be helpful.

Holding the Yarn 2 — My method for holding the yarn

Holding the Yarn 3 — Once yarn is woven thru fingers I can grip my work without strain in my yarn hand.

After I was given the okay to crochet again I worked with my chiropractor to find a way of holding my crochet hook and yarn that wouldn’t stress my wrists and arms. I also developed better habits in taking breaks when I was crocheting on a project.

My hook hold is a bit unusual, I call it a modified knife hold. It reduces the amount of stress on both my wrist and fingers. It took a while to get used to, but has helped me avoid injury for 14 years now. In the photo above I have the end of the hook between my 2nd and 3rd finger. Sometimes I hold it between my 3rd finger and pinkie. Just depends on the size of the hook and the project I am working on.

All this happened many years before I started designing professionally. In the years since that injury I became a mother and added all those fun tasks to an already busy life. For awhile I barely had the time or energy to crochet. Once I had some time for my favorite creative outlet though, I kept up with my better crochet habits.

Even as a designer working on some mad deadlines, I try to be very aware of listening to my body and being sure to take regular breaks. Even if a break is just getting up and putting another load of laundry in the washing machine or making a snack for my kids.

I also try to include stretching exercises in my daily routine, like the hand stretches in my post “Keeping Your Hands Happy”.

If you notice, I say I “try” to do these things. We are all human and often times we have to be experiencing some aches and pains to remind us to keep up with these good habits. That includes me.

If you are starting to have regular pain from your crochet hobby be sure to get help from your healthcare provider. And if they are telling you to give up crochet forever…get a second opinion.

Swatching and more Swatching, and Why that is good.

September 22, 2015Crochet, How Tos, Humor3 Comments

I’ve got a BIG project I just agreed to. I can’t tell you a lot about it yet. But I spent most of my weekend crocheting up swatches to figure out the amounts of yarn I would need to finish the samples for the project.

The pile above is what I ended up with. Some of these yarns are just too lovely for words and I am really looking forward to crocheting the final pieces.

Next step, as I wait for yarn to arrive, is to write the first draft of the patterns for these designs. Because I am a geek I tend to swatch, do a bunch of math, write the pattern, then work the sample from that pattern. It is the method I’ve found works the best for me. Then I can make corrections or additions to the pattern as I encounter trouble spots while stitching.

An example of this process was my Winged Columns Wrap in the Crochet! Magazine presents: Fall 2014 Special: Crochet Gifts in 1-2-3.

Originally I submitted the idea for a smaller accessory, but had included a sketch and description of it as a rectangular wrap. The editor decided she wanted it as a wrap. She and I discussed the size of wrap she wanted. We decided on approximately 18″x 60″.

I then swatched with the yarn she had chosen, Premier’s Alpaca Dance. My swatch was 6″ x 6″. I then weighed my swatch in grams. That allows me to calculate how many yards of yarn are in the swatch. According to the ball band information there are 371 yards in a 100g ball of yarn. So 3.71 yards/gram.

The target size of my finished stole was 18 x 60 = 1080 square inches. My swatch was 36 square inches and took 23.4 yards to make. 1080 divided by 36 = 30. 30 x 23.4 = 702 yards. Which means I needed 2 balls of yarn to make the sample.

Now, how does this all help you?

Have you ever wondered if you have enough yarn to complete a project? Swatching in the stitch and yarn you will be using, then weighing it can get you there. Once you know the weight of your swatch and what size your final project is supposed to be, you can tell if you will need to go purchase more yarn.

Of course, once you are purchasing yarn you might find some other yarn that needs to join your household too. Yarn shopping does tend to add to our stash. But using the above formula, you’ll always know if you’ll need more yarn for the current project (or the next one).

Getting a Little Crazy

June 29, 2015Crochet, HumorLeave a Comment

This photo was taken by my son a few months back, but it is an accurate depiction of what this past week has been like.

Been playing catch-up on pattern writing and proposal writing for new designs and classes. Hopefully will have some fun stuff to share with you later this week.

If I wasn’t crazy enough I realized this past week that Christmas is only 6 months away, as well as all the August, September, October and November birthdays in my large family. There are quite a few folks on the Crochet Worthy list in those months, so I am going to have to hop to it.

Have you started planning for your gift-giving crafting yet? Now is the time, otherwise you are going to be staying up into the wee hours in November and December with me.

Back from the Summer TNNA Show

June 6, 2015June 15, 2015Crochet, Humor, TNNA2 Comments

Here we are again, silence from me for a couple of weeks while I got ready for the TNNA Summer Trade Show. Now I am back and delighted with my meetings I had at TNNA and all the new yarns and other fun goodies that I saw there. I arrived in Columbus late afternoon on Friday and took a taxi with friends to our hotels adjacent to the Convention Center. That evening was the Fashion Show and the Designer Dinner. My Sunrise Shawl made in Elemental Affects “Civility” was the 12th item in the Fashion Show. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a good photo of it at the show, my phone battery had died and the camera I borrowed from a friend at the event wasn’t up to the lighting challenges. So the photo taken on my dress dummy before I shipped the sample is all I have for the moment. The pattern for this design will be available June 20th (note: due to some family stuff the original release date of June 15th has been moved out). After the Fashion Show it was back to the opposite side of the Convention Center to the Crowne Plaza hotel to join many of my designing colleagues and other yarn industry folks for the Marly Bird Designer Dinner. Again not much in the way of photos since my phone was still dead. The dinner was interesting though I was sitting at a table with a bunch of folks I hadn’t met before. I did see a lot of my friends in the room and caught a quick moment to chat with some of them. Some were only at the TNNA show for that evening, so I was glad for a chance to see them. During the evening there were a couple fun give-a-ways, I ended up with the little goodies above. I got the yellow clips for having a crochet hook on me, surprising right? Me having a crochet hook (I see you chuckling). After dinner we were all presented with our official Goody Bags. Look at all the fun stuff that was in there! I was really glad the dinner was in the same hotel I was staying at. All I had to do was take the elevator to my floor and collapse into bed. I was wiped out. Saturday morning I was moving a bit slowly, but made it to the show floor only 15 minutes after they had opened the doors. I cruised around the floor checking out the new products and new yarns. Eventually I met up with my friend Tamara (Mooglyblog.com) and we continue to explore the booths. We made a stop at one of my very favorite vendors, Clover Tools. As you all know, I love their crochet hooks. I introduced Tamara to them and they showed us their newest addition to their Amour line of hooks, 12mm and 15mm sizes. I’m really looking forward to playing with these more. The rest of Saturday slipped by in a bit of a blur. That evening I had dinner with my friend Mary Beth Temple and then called it a night pretty early. Sunday morning I met up with Tamara and Jessie (JessieatHome.com) at the Willow Yarns designer brunch. All of us were given a fun messenger bag with balls of yarn and sample skeins. I did a quick dash back to my hotel room then I was off to a meeting. Later that day I caught up with Tamara and Jessie again, as well as Charles Voth and Mary Beth. I stopped by the Brown Sheep booth to chat with Peggy and her family. We were planning for my trip to Nebraska this September when I will be one of the teachers at the Scotts Bluff Valley Fiber Arts Fair. If you are in the area come join us for lots of fibery fun. That evening Tamara, Jessie and our friend Becky went out to dinner, then joined the big group of designers in the Hyatt lounge. It was after 11 p.m. when I got back to my room and realized I still needed to get all my stuff packed up for checking out the next morning. Yikes! Monday went by in a whirl between checking out of the hotel and then making a last trip around the floor. I picked up some yarn from a few of the vendors and said my good-byes to as many of my friends as I could. Then back to the hotel to get my luggage and rearrange things for my flight home. I had a few adventures getting back to Colorado, delays for flights and delays for luggage, but eventually I made it back (unlike a few of my East Coast friends who got stranded overnight in Columbus and Chicago). It’s been a week of recovery and reconnecting with my family since then. My boys are out of school for the summer break, so everyday feels a bit like a Saturday I’m going to have a lot of wonderful things to share with you this summer, so be sure to stop by regularly. Next weekend is the Estes Park Wool Market and I’ll be heading out again in 6 weeks for the Knit & Crochet Show in San Diego. So if you are going to be at either of those events be sure to look for me and say “Hi”.

Jan is Here!

March 8, 2015Celebrating, Crochet, Humor, Yarn1 Comment

What better way to celebrate National Crochet Month than having one of my best crochet buddies here visiting for 2 weeks! We are going to have such a great time. Jan’s flight got in Friday just before noon and we had some fun playing in Boulder before heading back to my mountain home.

We had lunch at Mad Greens and then our desert was some yummy french fries from 5 Guys, our favorite. We decided we’d better walk off those fries, so we headed across Boulder to visit Shuttles Spindles and Skeins yarn store. We did our walk while moseying around the store, petting yarn and drooling over buttons.

Jan's Yarn and Buttons — Jan’s Yarn and Buttons

A few buttons decided that they needed to go home with Jan. There was also some Southwest Trading yarn she couldn’t resist.

I had to adopt some buttons too, and a lovely ball of Berocco Mixer.

Saturday I taught at the Longmont Yarn Shoppe and Jan joined me there as one of my students. She has been wanting to take my Perfect Fit Crocheted Hat class for ages, so the timing of her trip worked out perfectly for her to get to be one of my students this weekend.

Both of us are keeping track of our daily steps, so we decided to get a walk in at one of the Longmont parks beforehand. Since it is very muddy and slushy up here on the mountain, not to mention a tad colder than down in the plains. Our first choice of a park was busy with a special event so we headed across town and ended up at Lefthand Creek Park.

There is a nice paved path around the park, as we explored we discovered that there were art installations all along the way.

The first sculpture we met were these “interesting” ants, they sort of freaked us out.

We really liked this snake. The tile work was amazing and the sculpture is actually functional as the head of the snake is a drinking fountain. We didn’t try it to see if it worked though.

We turned around a headed back to the car after we reached these wonderful Dr. Seussian looking “trees”. We decided we would have to go down again and attempt to do the entire path to see all the other artwork.

After a quick stop at the grocery store for a few items, we headed on over to the yarn shop for some pre-class shopping and I set-up for my class. Students get a discount at the shop the day of their class, so of course Jan needed more yarn.

She obtained two lovely hanks of Raven Ridge Hand-Painted Yarn’s “Alight” 50% Merino, 50% Silk. The color is outside her usual palette, but is really gorgeous.

Then she needed to adopt a ball of the luscious Berroco Boboli Lace.

Alens have landed at LYS. — Aliens have landed at LYS.

During the class Jan and one other student finished their class project very quickly. I had the students practice measuring and making hats to fit “heads” which were whiffle balls. Jan and I decided the holes in the balls actually make these look like they are little faces. Next time I teach this though I think I need to use “egg” shapes. Fortunately with Easter right around the corner I should be able to find some that will be just the right size.

Next weekend is the Longmont Yarn Shoppe’s annual retreat. We are going to be hanging out with other yarn enthusiasts and eating great food at the Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado. It’s a long weekend, Friday thru Monday, a nice amount of time away from my boys and family responsibilities. So I’ll likely be posting after we return on the following Tuesday.

Knooking is Cool!

August 16, 2014August 16, 2014Chain Link, Crochet, Humor, KnittingLeave a Comment

Karen and I in a "selfie" during the banquet. — Karen and I in a “selfie” during the banquet.

I decided to take this class with Karen Whooley on a bit of a lark. I was curious about knooking and I love taking classes with Karen. As a teacher myself, observing other teachers’ class room styles is very educational to me…and Karen is a fabulous teacher. But this class turned out to be so much more for me than I had expected.

My issue with knitting has always been that I feel like the needle in my right hand is lacking something. That’s right, it needs a hook! So this knooking thing was way cool for me. Finally, everything I understood about knitting could be applied to a craft that used a hook. The fabric created with knooking is true “knit” fabric, the tools to create it are just a little different.

Leisure Arts very kindly supplied the kits for all the students in Karen’s class. So that made it easy for us all to get started. The kits held 3 hooks of different sizes, 3 satin cords and a handy sized booklet with everything you needed to know to begin knooking. Having taken my knitting class the day before also helped me. I was rocking along very quickly with my knooking and having a great time.

I got a lot further along with my swatch in this class than I had in my knitting class.

Didn’t bind off very well though, the top of my swatch had a serious curling problem.

One thing I’ve always struggled with in my knitting is twisting stitches and if I pull out a needle accidentally I often put the stitches back on the needle wrong. What I was really enjoying about knooking was I wasn’t struggling to keep stitches from slipping off the needles when making them and could focus more on what was happening with them.

I think knooking is going to be the “doorway” craft for me to improve my knitting skills. In fact Karen said that lots of folks that take to knooking eventually end up feeling more comfortable knitting with 2 needles. She helped me see how the way I was wrapping my yarn would make a difference in my knit stitches and whether they would “twist”.

As you work each row in knooking the cord holding the previous row of stitches allows you to correct the new row (if needed) without making a mess of the previous row. Somewhat like using “life lines” in lace knitting. I think it is easiest to knook with a hook that has a fairly pointed hook end, especially since you are working into stitches that also have a cord in them. I actually have some wooden hooks that have very pointed tops I’m considering modifying so I can knook with them. Just need to make the tail-end of the hook a little flatter and put a hole in it.

Karen has also published a book with Leisure Arts called “Easy Knit Projects”. It’s geared toward kids, but is really great for crocheters that don’t knit and want to try out knooking. In the back of the book are 8 pages that have illustrations and information reviewing the basics of knooking. It contains 9 fun projects to try out once you have the hang of knooking.

After taking this class I can highly recommend it to anyone that has ever wanted to learn to knit, but found 2 pointy sticks to be too intimidating.