The words in the title are a toss up for me, my reactions to them can go a couple of ways. The most common reaction I have is to simply tune the speaker out the minute those words come out of their mouth, the less common but more productive thing for me to do is to try to understand what they are saying, this usually results in me with a headache and still unable to accomplish the task! I'm pretty sure this is partly because I am primarily a kinetic/visual learner (if I see it and do it or read it and do it) hearing and doing is tougher for me. There is however another aspect to this problem that is not my fault. People (most people) are just not very good at giving directions! Now having said that I am posting today an attempt at a tutorial for a project that started with me asking "do any of you know how...?" and ended with a friend who said "all you hafta do is". And I think it turned out pretty well so here goes...
This is the potholder that started the whole thing, made by my grandmother for me years ago it is really pretty sad - this is what it looks like fresh out of the washer, and yes those are burn marks! I don't usually use it but I started looking at it closely and realized it was crocheted and this is my latest obsession and I needed to make one like it.
It is double thickness and it looked like the seam was in the middle on the purple side.
Honestly I looked and looked and could not figure out how it was done.
I was going to the quilt club working afternoon we have every Thursday and decided to take this ratty old thing and see if one of the ladies there (half of whom have been doing these sorts of things longer than I have been alive) knew how it was made, not really surprisingly they all did :)...sigh.
They all agreed it was easy and then they all said the same thing...."all you have to do is"...! I paid attention I really did but when I got home it just didn't make sense, so I wrote out what they said and thought I had it - even though it didn't sound like it would work. It does!
Chain 33 (this is adjustable depending on the size you want) starting in the first loop sc (single crochet) all the way to the end do not turn, without increasing, go to the other side of the foundation chain and sc down the other side. If you keep going around like this you will end up with what looks like a pouch (I used different colors - it can be done in one)
I just kept going around until I could do this with it.....
and sort of estimate how many more rows I would need...
till it looked like this.....
and I used a tapestry needle and the long tail end of the yarn and stitched the loops together in the center of the blue above.....the other side looks like this...
I am very pleased with this - it took a couple of hours to do in front of the TV (!) and turned out a neat little potholder that I can use or gift!
I know this is not a 'how to crochet' thing and I do assume you have some stitches already, if not I really recommend this you tube channel New Stitch a Day the videos are good and that was where I did a lot of studying - there are a ton of how to's for crocheting on you tube. Remember to use cotton or 'kitchen' yarn as acrylics can melt or burn. (I have used acrylics and am careful but I never give as a gift!)
Let me know if you try one I would like to know if the instructions are understandable, because really, I just told all of you "all you have to do is"!!! ;)
I have a tendency to discover something that I like to do and then do it until I get tired of it and move on to the next thing and the next etc. I will come back to the first thing (eventually) but I get going and then I can't stop! This has happened to me recently with crocheting. I learned to crochet many years ago with my grandmothers, both of them. It was way too sedentary for me at that age and it became one of those 'oh I used to know how' things. I 'rediscovered' the skill when our friends came over just before Christmas and asked if I had made any progress on my re-training program - when I replied that I had not and was having some difficulty they said "go get your hook and yarn" and spent a good amount of time helping me with hands on advise (hold it like this, stick your tongue out like that) and by the end of the next day I had a little beanie for the cancer ward (which was the charity thing that got me wanting to do this again in the first place)
I was so jazzed that I wanted to keep doing things and then there I was obsessing again!
I decided that I needed to learn another stitch or two so started a dishrag
and then I liked the looks of those scalloped edges so put one of those on the dishrag, just practicing and using stash yarn that didn't quite match,
then to learn the next stitch I made a pair of slippers for myself, then one for Hubby using two strands of yarn,
then the different slipper pattern with new stitches in it and then ....deep breath....I found the baby yarn and fell in love and started a thick soft baby blanket for the new granddaughter
and then I decided that she needed to be raised correctly and rooting for the proper football team is a big part of that so I started a blanket in the Denver Bronco colors and I have a pattern for booties and a sun hat (the sort of thing every well turned out Bronco fan needs even when your team loses the Super Bowl!)
I think that I am relieved that I did not rediscover this fun thing earlier, my kids would have suffered irreparable harm from the kind of neglect that this would have caused - but this has been a long winter and this was just the kind of obsession I needed to have to keep myself entertained! (those silly Calvin Kline Obsession ads and their underwear...ha!)
Oh and I needed to buy more hooks in many sizes because...
...just because, I won't even try to justify it, I will however point out that I really don't have any other vices, and I cut my own hair and do my own nails...sigh... I'm sounding defensive aren't I ?
I am having fun and it keeps me out of trouble so there it is. :)
