Monday, March 23, 2009
Am I Bad?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
How Would You Teach A Person To Crochet?
Teach me to crochet Aunty? she asked. Well okay I said.
So how does one begin to teach another to crochet?
Firstly I showed her how to make a slip knot onto the hook and demonstrated how it pulled apart with out knotting, easy part.
I then showed her how to hold her hook and the yarn and expressed how each person finds their own comfort eventually.
Next it was making chains, lots of chains until she felt a little more comfortable.
Then I pulled it all un done and said let's try a chain of 10 and an extra chain for a turning chain, as we are now going to learn how to make a sc into the chain.
Now the chain of 10 plus 1 more chain for turning was easy for her.
In through the 2nd chain from the hook and draw through a loop, yarn over and draw through 2 loops, we repeated this to the end. Ch 1 to turn, now make a sc in the first sc and in each sc across, good, she had the hang of it. So once again I rip it out and ask her to make it all by her self.
Rip it, rip it, rip it, I said, sounds like a frog and that's why it's known as frogging it. So she is learning some crochet slang too!
Once she was confortable with the sc (by the way she was a fast learner, which made it quite easy for me to teach her) I asked her if she wanted to learn a dc and she said she was ready.
I also told her I was using US crochet terms as they are more popular.
We kept the same piece of work going and I told her to ch 3 to turn, but not to go into the first sc, but into the next sc, as the ch 3 to turn will now become her first st of the row.
I asked her to count her dc's every now and again, some time's she had extra but mostly she had less. So a quick lesson of an increase or decrease was necessary. The missing dc's were from the beginning of her row's. So that was soon sorted.
Now shortly after her lesson she had to catch a plane to return home to QLD, so I loaded her up with some nice plastic hooks that she could use on the plane, the steel one's would have been conviscated as a lethal weapon.
I had the time to teach her to crochet in a circle too.
She was also thinking of making her self a blanket/aghan, but I did not have the time to teach her how to make a granny square and I advised her to youtube it for visual lessons and she did! I turned around and here she was on the computer, yelling out "this lady is too fast", "well pause it" I said "or find a better one to learn from" and she did.
So Roslyn has gone home with a new hobby.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
My Toilet Paper Roll Holder.
I had wire and beads in mind from the very beginning.
First of all I collected the medium that I needed.
I pre strung the wire with the beads.
I noticed that this wire was very hard to crochet with and it was scratching up my good no 6 hook. I have crocheted with wire before and I do not remember it being this hard before.
I eventually changed to another no 6 hook and kept going on for the outer side of the holder. I eventually ran out of one whole spool of wire, but I knew I had back up from another spool of wire.
It was not until I used the back up spool that I realized the wire was a thinner gauge. I had been crocheting with 24 gauge wire, I usually crochet with 28 gauge wire and it is much easier on the hands and the hook!
Now I had used that spool of wire too. I had no more back up on hand.
So I just sat the unfinished wire toilet paper cover on the toilet roll, whilst I thought about my next move. Wait and buy more wire, I couldn’t even remember where I had bought it in the first place, or try another medium. Oh yeah sure what could possibly look good with the wire?
Brain storm, try this. Crochet a lacey bottom.
I must stiffen this lace for it to stay in place for ever.
I wanted the perfect shape, but I knew the glue would stick to the toilet paper roll. So I wrapped the toilet paper roll in glad wrap to prevent this from happening.
I would venture out side now and then with an egg flip to make sure the cotton was not adhering to the plastic board.
But I really wanted this to match the large toilet paper roll holder and the toilet brush, which is a steel look.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
The Fire Truck Fund Raiser Day
I rocked up just prior to 8.00 am and set up next to the sausage sizzle man, he is to the left of the table in the picture below.
Oh now who do you think this clown is? Nah, I wouldn't be caught dead in that get up! But hey, anything to drag extra business in was well worth it.
Now this little fellow is my grandson Braydn. He came along to see the fire trucks and fast cars.
For you footy fans, here is the Melbourne Demons Mascot, near some very nice hotted up cars.
There was plenty of fire trucks on board for the day, but sadly 2 of them were called out, to yet another fire.
Now this was a real thrill, a jet engine vehicle. I have never seen one before and I was not aware of what happens when they start up. But I soon found out and jumped 10 foot into the air! I was able to snap this awesome picture of the flames ripping out of the jet. I'd love to have one of those for heating on a cold night, but not the noise along with it. My hubby was at home and he said our windows shook, he thought it may have been another earth tremor as we had a real one the night before.
Well the day was it self was enjoyable, a band played some toe tapping songs. There was plenty of activity happening around to just sit back and take in. And between the 2 stalls I ended up with a grand total of $400 for the day! I was very pleased and it was a pleasure to be able to pitch in and help raise the money for the day.