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Off to India!

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Michael and I are winging off to our honeymoon in India this evening.  Today (and last night) has been a flurry of packing, wrapping up loose ends, and arguing with myself about how many knitting  and crochet projects I can REALLY get done in India.

On one hand, we’re going to be taking the train a lot, and that is prime knitting time.

After going back and forth with myself, this is what I’ve decided on:

  • 2 balls of sock yarn (yarn under wraps, sorry) for a half-finished design submission, and needles.
  • 1 ball of sock yarn (Mountain Colors Mountain Goat) for an old half-finished sock for myself.  It’s entirely stockinette.  I stalled out when my Knitter’s Pride Karbonz metal tip broke off.  The needle breaking was no great tragedy (I wasn’t really enjoying working with them as much as I thought I was going to – the seam between the metal and the carbon fiber was not very good, and rubbed by finger), but it was sad that I stopped, the yarn is gorgeous.  I actually knit a pair of socks in the color, I ended up giving them to my mom.  Then I brought more of the yarn in the same color for myself.
  • Rainbow colored sock yarn to play with and to make a pair of socks for myself.  I haven’t knitted for myself in forever.  Two new pairs of socks to add to my collection would be great.
  • 1 ball of sock yarn and beads to play with a design idea for when I come home.
You might sense a theme with all the sock yarn – basically, I didn’t want any big project, I wanted to maximize yardage for space.  All my stitch markers, needles and scissors are packed in carry-on luggage.  I’m good to go!

On Learning Crochet

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Sweetness, now 6, has recently been asking me to teach her crochet.  On Tuesday, happy circumstance led to my having extra yarn and a hook with me.

Now, many people will start children on a larger hook and larger yarn – I’m not always of the option that those choices are the best answer.  Sweetness ended up with a size D yarn and a non-splitty multicolored sock yarn.  The multi-color because it was easier to see the individual stitches, the smaller hook and yarn because… her hands are small.  A larger hook and yarn wasn’t comfortable for her to use.

I worked a row of foundation crochet for her to work off of, and started her on double crochet. Why double crochet instead of single?  Double crochet has more of a rhythm; at least when I teach it. (Yarn over, into the “V”, yarn over, out of the “v”, yarn over, pull through two loops, yarn over, pull through two loops. After every step you yarn over.)

One of the luxuries of small children is that I could sit Sweetness on my lap (with adults this is a lot harder to do). At first, I fed the yarn and held the fabric while she manipulated the hook. When she felt comfortable, she took over holding the fabric – I was still feeding the yarn.  We worked for a half an hour.  Sweetness could have kept going, but I wanted her to leave on a good note, and her sister, Light, was getting impatient to have her playmate back.

Yesterday Sweetness and I continued, reviewing the stitch, talking about what happens when she “drops her loop.”  Sweetness’ relief when I showed her that she couldn’t have a dropped stitch the same way she could in knitting was comic.  She’s gotten pretty solid – by today she had worked a row of stitches on her own before getting mixed up about which direction she was going.  Her sister also stepped on the yarn and broke it.

The best part about all of this, for me?  Like many of my beginning students, I gave Sweetness a locking stitch marker to keep her stitches from unraveling when she isn’t using them. (I love locking stitch markers.)  Unlike my beginning students, I told her “The first one is free, but if you want another one, it’s 25 cents.” (I figured a little financial incentive would help her not loose it.)

“25 Cents! With four of those, I could buy an Ice Cream at Ikea!” was Sweetness’ response.

Now, every time I look at my stitch markers, I can only think about how many ice creams I could buy at Ikea.

Final Dash

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Work, work, work.

Michael, my husband, and I are in North Carolina this weekend.  While he and one of his best friends marathon Band of Brothers, I’ve plunked myself in a spare room to get some work on a design done.  I have a self-imposed deadline: I need to get the design done before next Friday, when Michael and I wing our way to India for our honeymoon.

It’s been a frenetic few weeks as I prepare to get everything off my plate.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to have enough time to visit some of the Triangle-area local Yarn Stores.  I’ve got my eye on the Hillsborough Yarn Shop and Yarns, Etc, and I might try and make it to a third one.

Blogging for Jordana Paige

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Exciting news!

Cezanne, my favorite all all Jordana’s Purses!

There’s been a bunch of great changes that are happening in the background right now.  Some of them I can’t talk about yet, but one of them I can.

I’ve joined the Jordana Paige blogging team!  If you don’t know about Jordana Paige, she makes beautiful purses and bags.  The best part about them is that they’re made specifically for crafters.  Each of them has special touches that make them super helpful – places to store your WIP, or little pockets for notions.

As part of joining Jordana’s blogging team I’ll be writing a crochet-focused article twice a month.  They’ll be a range of topics: tutorials, reviews, and other crochet related things.

The first blog post went live on Friday.  You should go check it out!

Valerie’s Cow

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A few weeks ago I taught a beginning crochet class at Woolwinders.  I love teaching beginning crochet.  It goes back to one of my core beliefs about my business and the world.  I believe that people are compelled to create; to make beautiful things.  When I teach someone how to crochet, knit or anything else, I’m teaching them how to create in some small way.

Valerie’s email was a bright spot in my inbox when I got it the other day.  She wanted to show me the finished cow she made from a Fresh Stitches Pattern, Jackie the Cow.  Take a look at her work!  If you didn’t know she had just learned to crochet a few weeks ago, I’d think she was an old hand.  I love the jaunty tilt to the grey ear, and the placement of the spots.

Do you have a project from a class you took with me, or a pattern published by Tinking Turtle?  Please, email me!  I’d love to show it off on the blog.

Are you interested in taking a beginning crochet class?  Woolwinders is offering a deal right now for a combination Beginning Crochet and Reading Charts and Patterns classes.  Go to their website to find out!

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