I am trying to relearn how to crochet.
The first video I found on Youtube was fine, from it I learned how to hold the hook, doing it backwards, as the video was aimed at people who are right handed. I tried to follow along setting up for a slip stitch, but ended up with a knot so tight that I had to cut it off the ball of yarn and throw it away. So it was time to find a video meant for left handed crochet, this one was helpful.
Following this video I managed to get the first slip knot onto the hook and working correctly. Hours had gone by, and I was exhausted, as repeated failure can have that affect. Satisfied, I put my ball of wool and hook away for today. Tomorrow I will take it all out again and go through the same steps again, and maybe attempt to add one more. This is going to take some time!
I could grasp advanced mathematics, statistics, chemistry and all kinds of complex subjects and tasks, but put a crochet hook in my hand and watch me quiver!
After spending hours concentrating on learning a difficult (for me) skill, I needed to get up and move around! I puttered in the kitchen, and then began learning a spot in the front bedroom for the computer desk. It has been in the living room, the resting place of the 2007 iMac. The iMac is now safely packed into the original boxes. The desk also held the printer, which I moved into the front bedroom and onto the wood desktop that sits atop the filing cabinets in that room. Almost all of the accumulated paper work that had been sitting on the desk has been sorted, then filed or discarded. The computer desk is now empty, and ready for the next step.
I want to store the computer desk in the front bedroom, but there is almost no floor space in that room. The clothes drying racks are setup in there, and they will remain in use until the weather is warm enough to comfortably hang our clothes out on the line on the back porch. There are two 25 kg bags of bread flour in the front bedroom, one of white bread flour, and one of whole wheat bread flour. Slowly, but every so slowly, the contents of those bags are disappearing as my bread baking progresses, and eventually they will be gone. The clutter also consists of a tote containing all of my sewing and fibre art equipment, such as a sewing machine and a quilting hoop. There is one large tote full of fabrics, collected over the last 47 years. Another large tote contains genealogy books, files, correspondence, and CDs. And another tote contains bulk dry goods, rice and beans, which I will transfer to five gallon pails, which I ordered today, which will allow basement storage.
Also in the front bedroom are a single mattress to be used in Iris the trailer this summer, and four solar panels we picked up on sale, which will power the LED lights in Iris, allow us to recharge cell phones, and if we are really lucky, we might be able to watch a DVD on the computer when we are at the Rideau Camp for extended periods of time. In a few weeks all of these items will be moved into their summer storage locations, freeing up even more floor space in the front bedroom.
We had a quiet lovely weekend. Attila made turkey soup, I baked bread, and we both worked on making croutons. We eat a green salad every day, and the croutons make it a very special course for our evening meals.
Today I have found small stashes of things that I stored in containers over forty years ago, intending to get back to them immediately. Better late than never I suppose. For instance, there is a lifetime supply of hair combs, bought at a liquidation sale almost thirty years ago, when my girls were losing combs at an alarming rate. There is no shortage of nail clippers, shower caps, shoe shine sponges, and shammies. I think though, that if I have not needed these things over the last forty years, I need not hold on to them any long for the “just in case”; it has come and gone unnoticed.
Worldly Distractions
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Date: 2:00 PM EST Monday 27 February 2017
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Quote
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
George Orwell
1903 – 1950
I can make a single chain with crochet. After that, I’ve never been sure I’m doing it right. It’s kind of sad as my grandmother was excellent at crochet but I never learned. But I did teach myself how to knit many years ago.
DH just put a new floor into our new upstairs office over the weekend. Next, we’re putting together a new desk for me. Then we’ll start moving all my files and things over to the new computer.
Can’t wait until the new office is truly usable! Definitely need to get some things on the walls and window, though, so the room will stop echoing.
Teri, I doubt I will ever be very good at it, but I am going to persevere as I think it will do me good to do something at which I cannot possibly excel, there are neural pathways to be explored.
That is exciting, getting to the point where you can begin to organize your space! And after the pleasure of setting it up just the way you want it, you get to use it!
Wow. Crochet? Good good. Take it slowly. I was so tensed up when I first learned it, Maggie. My stitches were so tight I couldn’t get the hook into them! I gave up many times but now I know how to relax my hands and do looser stitches… you need to purposefully make the stitches looser than you’d think you should, and they will even out. I admit it must be tricky doing it left-handed though. When most of the tutorials are for righties! Not fair. But there ARE lefty ones out there as you discovered. I am just starting my 2nd C2C (corner to corner) blanket today – in lovely blues/greens, for Paul because the one I just finished for him for downstairs here is just not up to par. I’m going to use it as a tablecloth! The “yarn” is like shoelaces material… not real yarn. I love mine to pieces (rainbow one) and I want him to have one like it.
So don’t give up! I think having the FB groups of fellow crocheters helps too. They give lots of photos and tips – my faves are “For the Love of Crochet” and “Bella Coco” groups. Bella Coco is in England and she does lovely tutorials on youtube as well.
Bex, you are the inspiration for my attempts to relearn the skill of crochet. I think it will do me good to try and take it up. I will be taking it very very slowly, to try and avoid frustration, and let the muscles in my hands and my arms adjust to the strain.
It will be quite a while before I am ready to tackle making anything, but with any luck I have another 20 to 30 years to work towards a project, 🙂
Glad to hear you finished the shoelace yarn project, I remember you mentioning how unpleasant the yard was!
There are always “potholders” to be made. ONce you make your first granny square… try making a square the same size out of all single crochet,and put the two of them back to back and single crochet all around the edges — voila, a great little pot holder. I have one out in the kitchen that was my first one and I just love that little thing. Oh, I have another one too that is bright red and white that I was only experimenting doing the c2c stitch on and that is just hanging on a hook – Paul said it was so cheerful!
Bex, potholders are good idea! I am also interested in dish clothes, but I think I will need better skills for that, because the yarn has to be cotton and it doesn’t look that easy to work with.