I just saw this and had to share.
Tag Archive: crochet
I have spent this week attending a Podcast seminar on FaceBook. Well, actually, I took the live class on Monday but found the rest of the classes at awkward times to live watch. So I binged the rest today and I’ll have to watch Friday’s class when I get the chance. Here is the YouTube of what I watched Monday.
I’ve mentioned here that it is in my plan to make a podcast. I still feel strongly that it is something I should and want to do. I don’t know why, exactly. I certainly am lost in trying to do this but I will be doing it.
My aim is to have a chat about this 71 year-old lady and what that feels like for me. I plan to share my passions good and awkward. Crochet, knitting, loom knitting, piano, singing, recorder, artwork, and especially my writing. I could do write-a-longs or read alouds of my own books.
When I was young, and I hate to admit it but even now, I love going into other people’s lives and homes and getting to know people intimately. I enjoy feeling the comradery of a good knit and bitch or sing-a-long.
Report cards pf my youth give me promise that I can do this. What did get written on almost all of them? ‘Darlene talks too much in class.’ Not that reporting that to my parents helped at all. Neither did moving me to different seats. I always made friends with whoever I sat with. One teacher even moved me up near his own desk. Guess what? It wasn’t long before he and I were in a conversation. He spent nearly a whole class chatting before he realized that he, too, had fallen for my gabby self. So, it is called a gift of gab, right?
Another reason I want to do this is to join baby-boomers and anyone else who feels isolated. I know with my cataracts reading has been so hard. That ability encompasses so much of our lives, not just reading books. Reading the phone number to make a call, reading ingredients on a package, etc. I want to make life more accessible. I have already made this blog available on Spotify but not my own voice, just the robot voice offered on Anchor. By the time I get to the writing the blog time, I don’t have the energy to read the words.
But the gabbing is something I want to use to get to know people better. Not just hear myself speak. So I am asking all of you to give me suggestions of what I might cover. Thanks for being the great bunch of friends you are here. I can hardly wait to see what you recommend. I think blogging helps me so much and I think the podcast will, too.
Per Linda:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “pin.” Use it as a noun, use it as a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
Pinterest is a history lesson of my passion over the last few years. Ah, but then so is this blog.
Writing starts and continues as the place I put a lot of energy. But I used to sew. I found the race of pulling the pins before the needle hit them too stressful. Not to mention the ripping what I sewed. Ugh! And sitting in the position of leaning over the machine hurt my back. Sewing fell as a passion.
Crochet became my next passion. I could make hats for charities and spend time creating. But my hands didn’t like the constant positioning.
Then I learned to loom knit. Even ripping, frogging, or tinking projects was fun. More yarn, more chances to improve.
I tried to dry felt but found the constant hand movement hurt so another craft bit the dust.
Now I’m having fun playing my recorders. It hurts my hands sometimes but it seems, if I’m inconsistent (skipping a day here and there) that my hands get more proficient and hurt less. It doesn’t carry with it the fulfillment the loom knitting does. I’m not helping anyone else. But maybe that’ll be something to come?
Drawing has the same feeling. I can get lost, as lost as when writing, in a project. True, I don’t feel the giving feeling there like I do with the knitting but I don’t feel wasteful of my time and energy. I wonder what that is? Should I see how I can expand somehow into something more charitable?
Music is coming alive in me again. What can I do with it? Is it okay to just enjoy the journey? Does it, too need me to pin it to the social magazine (how I think of Pinterest)? I really want to pinpoint my passions to understand how best to approach the ‘work’s of the fun.
And now with health improving, I wonder where that will lead. Hiking, camping? Let’s just put a pin in that.
But who can tell? I just did more scrubbies.
To prove my point I made a couple of days ago, I crocheted a scrubby.
It was the pattern on the scrubby yarn label. To learn more about the yarn I followed this YouTube:
Yes, I did crochet it quicker than I could loom knit but by the end of the project my left hand hurt so badly that I thought I would cry. This is the hand that was holding the yarn and gives the tension. And the scrubby is tighter on the end as I finished. The hook hand was fine. I do miss crocheting.
Then I made one more loom knit scrubby, just cause I could. I think I am addicted! Is there a SA 12 step program? I think when the yarn is gone I will go back to the socks I’m nearly finished with.
Here’s the latest
Just in case here’s the tutorial for this one:
Okay, the trash is out so I know it is Thursday. That answers the #WDIIA question. I promise to have other things to blog about in the next three days. I have other things to talk about.
Crochet for Beginners: Crochet & Circular Needles – How to Knit Circular Needles Like a Guru: by Kelly Austin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Hmm. Yeah, I’m not a lawyer or editor, so I can’t conclusively say anything. I can only point out that the second part of this two-part book looks and sound a lot like the book I just read by Emily Haschig the vaguely written book about Circular Knitting.
One the other hand, the first part about Crochet was fairly well written. I may have to go back and try the pattern that was presented. I don’t crochet much anymore as the process hurts my hands now. But sometimes I can’t resist. So if you get this book, you might get something about crocheting.
I can remember the first time I heard the word ‘Serendipity’. I don’t know why I learned it or even the year. What I remember is an excitement to know the word. Then I remember watching for it to happen. And it happened a lot!
It was years later that the movie came out.
I liked it so much I bought the DVD. But somehow their serendipitous adventure paled to many of mine at the time. Mine were not romantic encounters but manifestations I felt, in part, I drew to me.
As much as I want to give you a list of these happenings, I feel my brain is not up to that task right now. The closest I can come is how a few years ago when I lived in Reno, I couldn’t afford yarn. My fibromyalgia was worse in Reno. Again, I don’t know why. But I found that if I could keep my hands busy I could distract myself from the pain. So I started making things of plarn.
Stacking containers for folded plastic bags or sliced strips to crochet with and plarn balls.
The bag-bag chair. Was a laundry bag but the cats like it so much when I filled it with plastic bags for future projects when we moved. It is similar to a bean bag chair in size and comfort. But like I said, this belongs to the cats now.
This is one of the small containers I use for little bits.
If you look back into this blog and on my Ravelry page you’ll see a lot of fun ideas that kept me feeling less pain. Until crocheting itself started hurting. I still have a lot of those projects and they are still in use. Nice to know all those stupid bags became useful items.
Then we moved here and I learned of the Hat Huggers who have tons of donated yarn for donated comfort items. The leader taught me to loom knit and the rest is history. Someone else’s comfort is the result of my own comfort. I think of this as a serendipitous adventure. Though I could still work with plarn and I have lots made into balls ready for crochet (loom knitting it isn’t as easy, nor is needle knitting it as workable.) And maybe if I get bored I will go back and make a few things. Until then I’m looming a 10-stitch blanket, socks for my brother and lots more hats and toys.
I’m not so good at directing serendipity or manifesting. Because if I could, I wouldn’t mind making enough money to have my own yarn to make things for me. The donated yarn can go to my family and friends as long as I make sure to claim it on the rosters. Still, I want to go to a store and pick out the soft stuff and know it will be my own hat or my dog’s sweater. Or my own sweater? Or money to buy one– or more skeins of yarn.
Or meet the next teacher of my path. Maybe they’ll have yarn?
So this was a yarn about serendipity. For some reason, I feel I should apologize. I wish I was more alert today as I know I have stories of cars and houses that happened and lots of new friends. Just not specific ones for now. When I think of them I’ll post them, okay?
Thank you, Linda, for Jotting fun. Thank you, Jill, for another chance to remember a beautiful word, Serendipity, full of blessings.
Wedding Crochet: Create Your Dream Wedding With These Fabulous Patterns by Lisa Garland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Here is another book for the young crocheter. It has a little intro to crochet. Then the patterns follow. This would be a fun find for a young woman planning her own wedding. It contains a pattern for a beautiful gown, garter, lacy gloves, bouquet, and clutch, oh, and ring bearer pillow. It isn’t for a beginner but with the help of YouTube the young bride could work her way through some gorgeous patterns for her own special day.
For the rest of us… the patterns for the gloves and the flowers and clutch are worth trying. And the dress could be made for other events. The sizes vary from 8-18 and the dress is beautiful. I could see it in black or any other color than white for multiple uses. The patterns seem easy to follow so it might come in handy for me someday. The gloves might be fun for the Hugger Hats group–or gifts for friends.
The book was free when I picked it up but it may be worth the $2.99 for those brave DIYers.
Summer Crochet: 15 Gorgeous Crochet Projects That Are Perfect For Summer by Adrienne Black
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Okay, once again, I didn’t READ this book. I leafed through the pages, looked at the pictures and decided if it had any patterns I would like to try.
Oh to be young and fit! There are some sexy beachwear, bikinis and the like in the beginning of the book. If you feel confident enough to try these, go for it! Unfortunately, even when I was young enough or fit enough, I lacked the gall to try wearing them. These are not for beginners but the patterns seem easy to follow. I still need more pictures for some stitches but, hey, that’s what YouTube’s for!
After the sexy pages of young nubile mermaids, there’s chapter 3-Shoes and Such. Finally something I might be able to feel good about. Flip Flops and sandals. Chapter 4 has a picnic basket and blanket. Then chapter 5’s odds and ends include a baby hat and a flirty skirt. So, really, for me, there was only the baby hat that I might make for the hugger hats. If I remember where it is. SEE, that is why I write these reviews. I will come here to find more hats.
Source: Ravelry: Darravels’ Projects
These are just a few of the hats I have been making. My project page listed above will show more of the projects I’ve been busy with over the winter. Once on Ravelry you can click on the project to see my blogging about each one.
Source: Ravelry: Darravels’ Flower Power and Denim Fuzzies
For those wondering what I’ve been doing. Here is just one page of projects I’ve been hyperfocused on.
Darswords 
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