Needle felting

This was one of the most curious project. It went like this:

8PM - I was in a bar with my friends. One of them told me that she had taken up needle felting. I asked her what needle felting was. She and other people at the table described it at their best and I could not imagine what felting with a needle was like.

10PM - The said friend invite us over so that we could try needle felting.

11:30PM I couldn't quite get the hang of it and I thought it was rather strange activity. I was ready to go to bed and my friend insisted that I take her kit and wool so that I could finish the project.

8AM the next morning. I try again and, maybe because this particular activity is best done sober, I felt that I had better control of the shape.

A few hours of poking later, this is what I got: 

It was a bit like clay modeling. I could modify the shape as I went along, so I didn't need to plan ahead. It is definitely a project I could do again.

How to keep sweaty cold drinks in your bag

One of the great things about summer in Montreal is that people distribute free drinks on the street. I love getting freebies, even though I normally don't drink sweet drinks. One thing that bothers me about a cold drink, though, is that I never finish it at once, and I don't know what to do with the sweaty cold bottle. I can't just wipe it; it keeps sweating until it is no longer cold and I don't want get things in my bag (or my bag) wet. I usually end up holding it in my hand and that is rather annoying.

So I crocheted myself a cold bottle holder. 100% cotton to absorb the sweat. Now I can keep my hands free without getting my bag wet!

Mesh hat for a student

I like teaching. I have taught at universities before and after I left academia, I taught crocheting lessons so that I can continue teaching. Teaching a skill is a bit different from teaching ideas and concepts alone. It's a new challenge and I love it.

I advertise my crocheting classes on www.Skillbuddies.com, and that got me a student who asked me to show her how to crochet a hat. I was so thrilled. I hadn't taught a class in a couple of months and I had really missed the process. It was late spring, so no one else had shown much interest in craft activities.

It happened that she wasn't a real beginner and she was very dexterous. I showed her double crocheting stitches and how to increase, so that she could make a real hat. I was impressed to she her "get it" so quickly. Interestingly, she finds it rather difficult to adjust the pattern to get the right fit. Interesting because that is the part I find easiest - I struggle to stay with the pattern as I get imaginative while crocheting and start to modify it as I like. I suspect that it may be me that made the adjustment process harder for my student to understand - it is harder to teach something you do by feeling; I wasn't using any objective measurement (like counting stitches) to determine when I needed to adjust. Next time I crochet out of pattern, I should pay more attention to what I do so that I can teach better than the Let-your-inspiration-guide-you! step....

Anyway, a couple weeks after that class, she asked me if I could teach her how to make a mesh hat. I had never crocheted mesh patterns, so I consulted my Crocheting Bible book, got the mesh pattern, calculated the increase and voila! I had my mesh cap.
Well, teaching that wasn't so easy. Modifying a mesh pattern, from what I figured, involves changing the stitch numbers of every mesh; a single change has a global consequence. So making any adjustments involves a lot of planing ahead. I did a lot of calculation, and still had to adjust here and there as I went. When I was teaching this process to my student, I realized that it is a lot of brain work - possibly too much - for someone who is still learning the new stitches and the basis patters to pay attention to all the possible alternatives while crocheting. So I learned something: when I teach a new pattern/new stitch, I should use a fixed pattern that does not require on-the-go adjustments. It should make the learning process easier.

Mint, finally!

My mint finally sprouted!! There is just one spot in the living room where the sun shines during the day, and this pot was in that spot. I guess other pots have to wait a bit. When it is warmer, I will take them out in the porch and maybe they will sprout too.

Spring!

My coriander seeds just sprouted. They are the first sprouts of the season. (I am not counting the unknown sprouts that appeared next to my ginko tree in January). I have prepared mint seeds, coriander, and fenugreek. According to my seeding plans and the instructions I found online, I expected mints to sprout first. But then, mints and I don't quite agree so well, so they probably need more time.

Just in time for the Girls' Day

March 3rd is Girls' Day in Japan. A complete set would include dancers and musician, but I just made the two most important characters for this day.

Last crochet class

This was my course plan:

Class 1: beginning knot, chain, single crochet

Class 2: slip stitch, crocheting in rounds, increase

Class 3: crocheting in rounds 2, rounds with finger-wrapping beginning, doubles, decrease, pattern reading

I don't know how obvious it looks to you, but I had way to much to teach in my last class. I was hoping that a lot of the things we had covered in the first two classes would come together in the last class and it all would make sense, but well, in the end, the class felt rather rushed. Somehow, it felt important to me to cover all that topics so that my students would be able to go on their own and follow patterns and make what they wish, but maybe it would have been better if I covered less topic and focused on really understanding these techniques. Doubles and pattern reading might have been unnecessary.

I asked my students to send me a picture when they have completed a project themselves, so I am going to wait and see.

Note to self: Flexibility is important in teaching.