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.

crocheting class again

This week was part 2 of the 3 class-course. My students have practiced single stitches across, turning chains and came back to the class with nice rectangular patch of crocheted fabric. It was time to show them crocheting in rounds. It went smoother than the last class. Their stitches have become more stable and they are able to count their stitches. We started with 4-chains, then tried slip stitch, and crocheted eight stitches into the round. We did three more rounds and practiced increases for the rounds. It was wonderful. My students can now make circles!!! Circles are great because with that, you can just modify teeny bit to make hats. So they are ready to make things! I am going to teach decrease and long stitches (doubles, trebles) next. I hope the next class is going to be as fun as this one.

Crocheting class

I taught my first crocheting class yesterday. It made me realize how much of the motions I perform automatically - like holding the hook, holding the yarn, hooking and pulling the yarn through the loops. Explaining these steps in words was a challenge.

I am going to create a how-to-crochet memo and post it here once it is ready.

Window treatment for a restaurant

I am more comfortable with my crocheting and knitting skills than with my sewing skills. Fate has it, however, that my most "public" project was going to involve sewing.

It all happened like this: I met Altaf in a French class. He was going to open a restaurant just over a block from where I lived. After his restaurant opened, he realized that its windows looked bare. He asked me to make some curtains. I searched online, went to the library to get inspirations and instructions on how to make such things. At that time, I didn't even own a sewing machine, so I borrowed one from my friend to do this project. I couple of hard weeks later, I hung the curtains in his restaurant.

It was one of the best things I have done with my skills. There is a restaurant in Point St. Charles where I can get a great lamb Madras and look at my creation. It makes me rather proud.

Star of India Express

1170 rue Ropery

Montreal

514-315-7006

Course cancellation

Community centers sometimes offer really inexpensive classes. I found a center near me, and decided to register for the sewing class (topic: recycling of clothes). The course was supposed to start next Monday and I had been very excited about it. Then I received a phone message telling me that the class got cancelled.

Sigh. I guess a class that inexpensive ($75 for 30 hours of class) needs quite a few students to make it worthwhile for the teacher and the center. I wish they had set the course fees a bit higher so that they wouldn't need so many students. Then again, it is that inflexibility of established community center that leads me to think that my online community center idea might work.

A project for 2010 - recycling sweaters

I am not proud to say this, but I often ruin my sweater by washing it in the washing machine. I would put a sweater (or two, yes, I am bad) in a bag and wash it using the gentle cycle. I have quite a few sweaters that have thus become too small for me. I would take them to a cloth depot at the end of the season, or whenever I feel overwhelmed by the number of the shrunk sweaters.

Well, that was in the past. I found that old sweaters can be made into other things. The common advice seems to be to felt the sweater, which would give you smaller, but sturdier (and easy to hem) material, but there are projects that do not involve the felting method. It was a huge revelation for me that one can sew sweaters. I think I am going to try making slippers and cardigans. Who knew. Shrunk sweaters have just become my friends again.

A hat with bobbles

"Experimental" is how I would describe my crochet style. I often crochet without consulting a pattern and just follow my intuitions. However, a lot of my intuitions are probably guided by the patterns I saw somewhere on the web. A lot of patterns I look at are listed in Crochet Pattern Central.

I like special stitches. They break the monotony of doing the same stitches all around. So I enjoyed making this hat, which has bobbles spread at every 10 stitches in every second row. I thought I was going to be clever so the bobble happens at the 10th stitch first round, then at the 5th, to spread them in an "interesting" way.

The result? I am not sure. It looks kind of bumpy.

Amigurumi

My grand mother had a big crocheted dragon in her living room. I never asked her how she made it. I just assumed that it would have taken a lot of time and skills. I now know that it would take a lot of time, as it was a big dragon, but it probably wouldn't be so difficult.

I tried a few amigurumi projects and I have mixed feelings about it - I like how it crochets up quickly, but I don't like the amount of materials and tools I need. See, I often crochet on the go, so more tools a project takes, more stuff I have to carry. I also haven't found the best weight to put at the bottom, so my crocheted birds would lie on their side. I was really not happy about it because I felt like I was surrounded by dead bird amigurumis. Then I saw this amigurumi elephant pattern (sorry, Lion Brands requires registration). It has four legs. That means stability, without the need for weight! It doesn't solve the too-many-materials problem, but I am much happier with the creation now. When I have time to crochet in one place, I might try to make one again.

BYOB bag - crochet

I am normally a bit hesitant about crocheting a bag. In order to make it heavy-duty (and I don't see how I can survive with non-heavy-duty bags), I would need to make a lining. I will try it one day, but so far, the prospect of crocheting a bag, making a lining, and putting them together overwhelms me.

A bag for just one bottle, though, doesn't have to be lined! I was a bit nervous the first time I used it, as I kept imagining the bag falling apart and the bottle of rum falling and breaking on the street and covering me in glass shards and rum.... Well, the bag survived and now I am more comfortable using it.

Multi-colored yarn is the best way to make a simple project look so much more complicated. This one is crocheted in non-continuous rounds. Once the body of the bag was long enough, I continued crocheting to make the handle and stitched up the end to complete it. Using double or treble stitches make this kind of project really quick!

I found this cotton yarn in Mouliné Fils De Qualité.

My favorite crochet project - hats

My mom taught me very basic crocheting stitches when I was a child. So I knew how to make chain, single and slip stitches. The problem then was, however, I didn't know about turing chains or increases/decreases. I tried to make squares and they all came out some sort of quadrilateral. I was puzzled, and then lost interest when I got a pile of quadrilateral pieces that I couldn't find any use for. I wasn't really experimental back then. So it was only when my friend (the same one that showed me how to knit - Goodness bless her!) showed me her crochet works that I appreciated the possibilities of crocheting. She also taught me doubles, half doubles, and the way to increase and decrease stitches. Sooo many possibilities opened all the sudden!

I think I made this hat in two evenings. I put a pom-pom on the side. I am very happy with this hat - I still wear it.

My first knitted hat

My friend taught me to knit in 2005. After making a few practice patches, my first project was a hat. She told me to get the gauge (which I never did. I just went by the feeling.) and start knitting in rounds.

I started with a circular needle, no ribbing. So the end curls up a bit. Then I started to decrease and switched to double-pointed needles when the round became too small for the circular needle. Simple, except that I used beginner's yarn. It's supposed to be good for beginners because, if you mess it up a bit, it doesn't show. I don't know why that is a good thing. I prefer to see my stitches. If you are a good counter, you can keep track of the number of stitches and know when to do the decrease. I find it easier to see where the decreases happen, so I like simpler, straighter yarn. I liked the pattern, so I continued to knit more hats until I discovered the joy of crocheting.

Hamster Tower

This is an old project from 2004. Back then, I lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Ohio and my roommate was a hamster.

I was one of those pet-crazy ladies, so I made some of his toys myself. The best materials were cardboard boxes, toilet paper roles (when he was little), paper towel roles (when he got bigger), and then, I discovered popsicle sticks!!!!

So this is a watchtower I built for him. It has an entrance that goes down to the ground and a larger window on the side. My hamster had already grown too big to go through the toilet paper rolls that I had set aside, so I cut them lengthwise and added a popsicle stick floor. The side window is there because I thought I could condition him to associate the tower with good food.

Well, he was more observant than I thought. I would wave a grape in front of the tower window and he would climb up my leg (I was sitting on the floor), up my chest, down my arm, to get to the grape. So it did not get to be used much. I had a lot of fun making it though.