I'll Keep This Short...

...but here's my second hot pad!

I kind of want to keep this one since it matches my countertops so well!

There's plenty more of this yarn, though, so let me know if you like these colors! I can (and will) make more!

Edited to add: There is NOT plenty more of this yarn, sadly. I started on my second one of these with this yarn and got about three-fourths of the way done and ran out! I will have to pick some more up next time I am near Hobby Lobby!

My Second "First" Project!

I'm actually very excited to report that I have completed a project (like a real one)! Here it is:

My daughter said I did such a good job stitching up the back that she couldn't tell which side was the front and which side was the back. Can you?

 

(Left is the front; right is the back.)

This only took me about three days. I got to work on it a lot during a very long swimming meet on Saturday.

I found this pattern here, and I like it because it only incorporates single crochet. That gives me a good opportunity to try to perfect this method, as I plan to make several of these.

In fact, I already started on my next one! This yarn goes quite well with my countertops, don't you think?

Saturday also provided a good opportunity to get to Hobby Lobby and purchase some more yarn. This hot pad I am working on now would actually also be perfect as a blanket with my new furniture! I don't know if I will ever graduate to making blankets, but I need to keep this yarn label in case I do.

I do understand why beginners are encouraged to start with a lighter-colored yarn, though. This has some light areas in it, but they grays and browns can be hard to see. I had to back up a few times and make corrections.

Some things that have changed in the process of working on these the last few days: 1. My hands have relaxed a lot. When I first started, I was very tense, and my hands would cramp up pretty quickly. I had to take a lot of breaks. I had a death grip on my crochet hook. I noticed last night, that I was able to work for quite a while before I needed to take a break. 2. I have sped up quite a bit as well. 3. My sensitivity to the yarn hasn't been so bad the last few days. My eyes are watering and itching a lot less, so maybe I am not allergic after all, or maybe I'm adjusting. Good news either way.

We had a late start today, but I was kind of hoping for a snow day so I could stay home and crochet more! It's getting to be a bit of an obsession!

How is your project going?

My First "Project"! (It's nothing to write home about...)

...but I'm still going to write about it!

Here it is:

What is it? I think it's a hotpad. This is a single stitch "pattern" (I guess that's the word?) I love this yarn, though! I love a good seasonal hotpad, and my Valentine's Day collection is a little thin, so this will help me boost that up a bit. 

I know this isn't good. It's a bit misshapen and my stitches aren't consistent, but I do think I got better as I went along. 

Now, if you recall, my end goal was to create seven of these to gift to my students. I think I could go ahead and do that now (though the student who gets the one I create LAST probably gets the one that is BEST), but I'm going to try to master some other stitches before I start creating their hotpads/dishrags. Also,  I would be kind of embarrassed to give that first one away to anyone. 

I also saw this over the weekend and I really liked the sentiment:

I hope my students who have taken up a new hobby can really embrace this. I love that it's possible to be a complete failure at whatever it is we try to learn, but not fail this overall project. Personally, I think as soon as a hobby turns into a moneymaker, it's no longer FUN and becomes WORK. I have a friend who is a photographer and does a lot of sports photography. He just gives the pictures he takes away for FREE. I always used to tell him he should sell them! He would say, "No--then it becomes work!" I do know of a venue that would accept my crochet goods to sell as a fundraiser (no money for me), and if I ever DID get good enough to participate in that, I think I would, but this is still a good hobby even if I can't ever advance past mediocre dish rags. 

Of course, if you are great at something and can monetize it and doing so doesn't kill your joy, do you! There's nothing wrong with being compensated for your time and talent. What do you think? Do you agree?

Practice Makes...Well, Not Perfect!

Crocheters of the world, what is this:

I did it several days ago, so now I don't remember if it was single stitch or double half stitch. I've been working on both. I find that I like single stitch much better!

I'm not sure what happened here, though!

I'm pretty sure that in this sample below, I started in single stitch and then somewhere in the middle decided I would practice my half double stitch. I'm still using the tutorial from GoodKnit Kisses.

One of the things the tutorial cautioned about with the half double was making sure you added an extra stitch on the end so that you didn't end up with a wedge-shaped project. I thought I was following that directive, but...

...as you can see, I have a wedge-shaped project. So I abandoned that and went back to working on my single stitch. My daughter keeps asking me "what is it?" I think it's a dishrag or a potholder. Or as one of my students said, "It can be both!" One thing I need to find out about: can ordinary yarn even be used as a dishrag? That doesn't seem like it would work. What about as a hot pad? I feel like I've burnt my hands on a few hot pads that really didn't guard against the heat.

And there have been a couple of interesting developments: I think I might be allergic to yarn! My eyes get so itchy while I work, BUT I did just get new contacts, so I'm hoping it's just that. Either way, I'm not going to let it stop me! I just take out the contacts and wear my glasses when I work on this, but it's definitely an unforeseen (pun intended) obstacle. Honestly, just being horrible at this is enough of an obstacle. Not being able to see what I'm doing doesn't help!

Another interesting development is that Fiber Space happens to be this month and next month and I signed up to go next month. Fiber Space is an event that happens twice a year, usually in January and February, at a farm near where I live, so this is very convenient. It's a retreat where you can basically go work on either crochet, knitting, spinning or a loom, and you can get some expert help from one of the sisters there. I serve on the advisory council for the farm, so I'm happy to support it in any way I can, and it's just a double win that I can support my crocheting endeavor at the same time!  I managed to talk a friend into going with me, and I'm just so excited to have some dedicated time (about nine hours) to work on my new hobby away from the distractions of my life! I think it will be very good for both my friend and me.

Step 1: Buy All the Things.

One of the fortunate things about having to travel almost every weekend is that I get to some bigger towns that have bigger craft stores and better selections than what I can find at my local Walmarts. I took advantage of a weekend trip this last weekend to hit Hobby Lobby and buy my crocheting supplies. Yes, I decided to go crochet over knitting. Mainly because there's only one hook involved and not two needles, and I'm uncoordinated, so it seemed like one would be easier to manage than two.

I started with a beginner's book--one that was so "beginner" it told me how to buy a crochet hook and thread. I also got two skeins (that's a technical term that means "ball" as near as I can tell) of yarn to practice with, and some yarn needles (the book said I would need these).

Finally, it was time. I sat down with my book and started reading. So far, so good. I managed the simplest of steps with some difficulty: making the slip knot. Then, using the book's diagrams, I made a "chain." Pleased with myself, I sent a picture to my sister-in-law, who crochets, and asked, "How's this?!" I was fully expecting her to text me back a thumbs up or something otherwise encouraging.

She called.

It wasn't quite right.

She suggested I find a youtube video rather than the book. My stitches (or whatever the proper terminology is; I'm still learning) were too tight and I would have difficulty working back through them. Of course, I did not realize I would be working "back through them." I told you I was level Beginner.

I thought that watching a video was a pretty good idea; diagrams have always been hard for me to follow. I found a nice beginner's tutorial on youtube and watched that. About six times.

I don't think this is very good because my stitches or hooks or Vs or whatever aren't even, but I kept practicing, and I think it got better:

I was pretty pleased with this, but then this is where things started getting confusing because I'm left-handed. I decided to switch over to a video that showed how to crochet left-handed, and that cleared things up some, but I still need more practice!

Getting down one side went OK, but I got really lost when it was time to turn around and go back, so that is this week's goal!

20 Time--I'm terrified!

I introduced the 20Time project to my seniors today! This is the first time I've ever done it, and I am terrified!

What led me to this decision is the very unique situation I've been placed in this year: due to some early graduations and some schedule changes, I have two senior classes with four students or less in them. It seemed like an opportunity to do things differently, and the advice of the collaborative hive mind was to try 20Time/Genius Hour/Passion Project.

At first, I wasn't too into this idea because it seemed like a lot of work...for me. And I'll be honest here: I'm not looking for MORE work at this time (or any time, really). But the more reading I did about it, the more inspired I became to give it a try. I read a lot of Laura Randazzo's blogs (I started here) about her experience with 20Time, and I have her free resources as well (available on TpT). I was feeling pretty good about my decision until Laura said I needed to do a project, too.

OK, and here's why: I have one hobby and that's reading. As soon as I have to do something other than JUST READ, it's not going to be a hobby anymore. Honestly, I wasn't feeling too enthused about doing my own 20Time project. Also, let's be honest: my 20Time isn't going to get to be during classtime like the students. I'll be working on this on my own time, and it's for work, so...

But that's kind of the point, isn't it? The students may not have jobs at 3M or Google where they're given time to work on their own projects, and we do want them to have passions outside of work, so I set to thinking about what it is I would like to work on.

The first thing that came to mind was learning to play the guitar (obviously inspired by Laura learning to play the ukelele). I have a guitar; I don't know how to play it. In the past, I've thought it would be cool to learn, but...I don't want to...at this time. This idea did not excite me; it actually filled me with dread. So I knew this wasn't the right thing.

Then, after reading one of the project ideas that suggested recreating five Pinterest projects, I started looking through my Pinterest boards. I have a board called "Crappy Crafter," but again, those things looked like work and stress to me, not projects I actually wanted to do.

I love to cook and bake and I'm currently really into healthy recipes that are low points on the WW system. Could I turn some of my most loved recipes into WW recipes? I mean, I could...but 1) I don't like to experiment in the kitchen (tried and true only, please) and 2) someone else has basically already done this for me (and created a website for it...maybe that's HER Passion Project). I'll just use her recipes.

I have an Instant Pot on loan. Maybe I could try 10 new recipes in the Instant Pot and document how they go over with my picky eaters.

But here's the thing about the Instant Pot: it's huge and I don't even want it in my kitchen. I've made two things in it and I'd say it's just OK. That may be another project for another year.

Here's what it finally came down to: making five book crafts (Pinterest inspired) OR learning to knit or crochet. Looking at the book crafts didn't actually excite me. They look complicated. Remember, I'm a CRAPPY Crafter, and I'm probably playing fast and loose with the term "crafter" here. So...

...I'm going to learn to knit. Or crochet. I haven't decided yet, but the idea of doing this actually DOES excite me, and basically, I want to spend the rest of my day looking at patterns on Pinterest (I didn't, but I WANTED TO). Which one is easier? That's the one I'll pick. There's a colleague at work who is a crocheter, and I think she can help me if I get stuck. My SIL crochets as well, so she might be available for some advice, though she has worked with my daughter a bit and says she thinks my daughter's dexterity might be more suited to knitting. Does that mean mine is as well? Oh, and I'm left-handed, too, so I think I have to learn this on my own.

I'm hoping to find a simple project that I can make for my seven students as part of my 20Time: a potholder, a hot pad, a dishrag...that sort of thing. I only need to do seven, so once I learn one, the rest should be easy!

Right?