Would you like to learn to crochet?

Those of you who know the un-virtual me, know that wherever I go I usually have a hook in my purse, random pieces of yarn stuck to my clothing, and my trusty little bag with whatever project I am working on toting along with me. Often when I am sitting at the lunch room, or at the doctor's office, people will say, "what is that - knitting?" Or "my grandmother used to crochet, we have an afghan for every day of the week", or "I tried that, but never could figure it out." In the past, I would be the one asking those questions, and like many have tried over and over to learn to crochet without success. If you saw one of my very first posts about crocheting, you can relive the agony of trying to learn this art from the master, my husband's grandmother, Ella Tietke, and the years of trial and error until in the past 10 years or so (since becoming a grandmother myself), I finally got to where I can somewhat read a pattern and make something other than a lopsided square. I am still learning, and continue to learn, but today's crocheter has a lot of resources that I didn't have when Ella Tietke was guiding my clumsy hands. I by no means profess to be a good crocheter on the level of Teresa of the Art of Crochet, and in all my efforts to teach someone to crochet my only perfect pupils were Lisa F., and Marigrace M. I recently started sort of an informational tutorial about crocheting with the hope of someday making an ebook out of it, but like many of my plans, that is kind of stacked up in the big basket of things I want to do. Since I did put somewhat of an effort into it, I am going to provide, my loyal and faithful readers, with snippets. But as a sort of disclaimer, this is not a resource in and of itself, of how to crochet, more of a reciting of what works for me, and the resources that I use to figure things out when I am stuck. You will know that the post has to do with learning how to crochet when it is titled, "would you like to learn to crochet". Posts that are just my random, banal silliness will have their own crazy titles, just as before. So spread the word, I hope to use the tutorial posts as an exchange of ideas, a dialogue from crocheters of all levels as to what works for them, so that we can teach each other. Rushing off to visit my baby grandson, but have to pick a few strands of Red Heart petal pink out of my hair first!!! Have an awesome day, and I hope it involves some crochet!~

Clang Clang Clang goes the . . . . crochet hook

Happy Valentines Day! Today, for one day, I will really try very very hard not to annoy my husband with the sound that makes him grit his teeth, hunch his shoulders and sometimes emit a gutteral sound through his clenched bearded lips. You see, we are a - well, I guess you would say, a mature baby boomer couple. After dinner I change into my jammies and perch on the couch with my puppy sleeping on my lap,various crochet patterns strewn to the right, my kindle and Iphone balancing on the arm of the couch, a large basket of good ideas at my feet, puppy's afghan to the left with survivors of various unfinished projects stuck like magnets to everything. Typically, I have my glasses perched on my head, or to my side, since I can't see with them and can't see without them. So to crochet, they are absent, but if something peaks my interest on the tv, I have to use my hands like scurrying mice to try and locate the glasses, usually unsuccessfully to pay attention to what my husband might have commented on by saying, hurry up Ellen, look at this, did you see that, oh geeze! Well anyway, this is quite a lot of paraphernalia that I have surrounding me, and yes, paraphernalia is the right word because that is associated with addiction, and I have already admitted that I have an addiction to anything that is crochet. Oh, and I also have this other weird habit, I can't drink in the living room because I have a fear of spilling on my stuff! So from my spot on the couch, there is occasionally a need to get up, or to move, to take my turn on Words with Friends, or get a drink from the glass on the kitchen counter, put the puppy out or bring the cat in - well you get the idea. Now if you look at the beautiful picture that forms my banner, it is a painting of Lydia Crocheting in the Garden, and just so you are not romantically thinking of a Downtown Abbey dowager writing this post, let me inform you that I look nothing like Lydia. So much sitting at work, so much sitting to crochet, and the inactivity of winter have changed my front porch into a multileveled parking garage. As my grandson Marcus likes to say, Nanny, you are fat. I have continually corrected him to say, I am not fat, I am just fluffy. So invariably, there comes a time in the evening when Nanny has to move, perhaps for one of the many reasons recited above, or maybe because I have fallen asleep, hook in hand. Whatever the reason, this sudden shifting of the mountain will usually be preceded by the search for the crochet hook. This is in deference to my husband who equates the sound of a crochet hook hitting the hard wood floor with nails on a blackboard. I check the various tiers of the multilevel garage, dig my fingers deep into the recesses of the couch, move cushions, lift afghans, shift patterns, check behind my ear, really a scanning that rivals the 20 point check at the car dealer. Not finding the hook, (which should be my first clue of trouble) I carefully rise from the couch, only to hear it! The slow motion, surround sound, tumble to the ground of my favorite Boyle J hook, twirling, schussing, the triple jump, flying camel, the futile attempt at a catch, and then it is done, hard metal hits hard floor. Clang! I quickly apologize, yet again, to my poor husband who has begun his ritual reaction to this horrid sound. I truly am sorry, because there are some sounds that just chill me to the bone as well, so I can appreciate his distress. Honestly, I kind of like the sound, but then I am weird when it comes to crochet implements. So today for this beautiful Valentine's day, no candy for my love, just a clank free evening. Hmmm, I wonder if I could crochet a cover for my crochet hook?

Another crazy crochet story

Boy, they say time flies when you are having fun, but three years since I last posted!!! Unbelievable! We have a lot of catching up to do! But tonight I wanted to tell you a bit about crocheting through a hurricane! You may have heard that back in October/November the Jersey Shore was hit with a megastorm called Sandy. Now, I have to admit, that I was one of those people who downplayed it, bragged that we lived through Irene and Gloria, and that the media was superhyping this storm. In fact, the day it was scheduled to hit, we were leisurely driving around winding our way down to my daughters in Historic Gibbsboro to babysit so that she and her husband could go to a concert for some English group whose name escapes that was playing in Philadelphia. About halfway there, we got the call to turn around since the concert had been cancelled due to Sandy. Well, the wind was whipping, the rain was pelting, and all through the night it seemed that a freight train was zipping through our neighborhood. Plus, before we had gone to bed, we lost power, and a tree or two. Being less than ten miles from the beautiful beaches of Ocean Grove and Belmar, we opened our door in the middle of the night and smelled salt in the air. It was a bad one. The next day, still no power, we drove recklessly dodging flying limbs (from trees, not humans) and detoured around police cars blocking lightless intersections, seeing if we could get batteries. I had an ulterior motive, in tagging along, in that I had heard that Lowes had free internet wifi! My husband ran into the store, and I dug my Kindle out of my purse. Of course, before checking Facebook, or my email, or the weather, which would have been smart, I went right to my etsy shop. I had been having a nice conversation over the past few days with a customer who had seen one of my teddy bear blankets. This is one that I make with my super favorite, Red Heart Yarn, using several different crochet stitches and three colors. The customer was from California and wanted a special gift for her daughter's baby shower which was scheduled for November 11. In our last post, I had told her the blanket was done, but I had to add the frog faces that she wanted to make it fit in with her daughter's theme. I quickly sent her an email from my etsy page, that said "No power, no internet, text me on my cell" and gave her the number. The Kindle soon powered down, out of juice. The next day, no power and no heat, I rushed to dress and report to work. Not than I am a dutiful employee, but I had heard that they had full power. I packed my kindle, cellphone, chargers and my crocheting things into a bag and off I went. I plugged in my electronics to supercharge them and took my lunch break to crochet some frogs. After a quick side trip to AC Moore, it was back home to crochet by flashlight and finish up my order. The following morning, wakened by the rising sun and my cellphone alarm, I rushed back to work, mostly to recharge my phone and Kindle and get a decent cup of coffee. Next on my agenda was to take a cellphone photo of the frog blanket for my California customer. Several more texts with paypal information and delivery instructions, I was half way there. Day three without power, I arrived at work, armed with my box of packing supplies and scale, and packed up my shipment, printed out the postage, and used my lunch hour to send the package off to California. I told my customer she certainly would have a story to tell at her daughter's baby shower! Nine days without power, and in the middle of it, a freak 12" snow storm. But the frogs were delivered! Stay tuned for some more crazy crochet stories!

Day Seventeen, January 22nd, 2010

Today was an amazingly happy day. I picked up Chinese Food for my favorite cousin and we celebrated her birthday together while she was babysitting her grandchildren. She will kill me if I tell you how old she is, but let me say that it is the beginning of a decade that has the same number in it as the year I was married, which is 1972. So you can safely guess that she isn't one or two, so that leaves just two options! Anyway, her granddaughter made us super special iced coffees that she especially created at her job at Dunkin Donuts and they were beyond awesome. She has her own secret formula and customers ask for her just so that she can make it for them. Some of the ingredients are extra caramel and heavy cream, don't ask about the calories. From there I headed to historic Gibbsboro for my grandson Damien's first penance. (On the way, I made a little detour but will save that for another time). Damien was really nervous about his First Penance, but after a very lovely play, video, sing a long, and church service the children got to pick their priest, either one behind the traditional closed confessional, or face to face. Damien chose the Pastor, a very kindly looking man with a thick Irish Brogue, who was hearing confessions face to face behind a glass door. He was the next to last to go, and his parents watched very curiously on the other side of the door as he celebrated this important sacrament. When he came out, he was beaming, and professed that it wasn't bad at all. I asked him how it felt to have a clean soul, but he said it didn't feel any different. The children all looked so cheerful that for a moment I even thought about perhaps going to confession myself. Not quite ready for that yet, the trauma of the stern priest at Sacred Heart Church in Jersey City, in 1963 asking me, "is that all" in his booming mean voice just hasn't left me yet. Thank goodness things are different in many ways, and seeing the peaceful joy on Damien's face was the happiest part of today.

Day Sixteen, January 21st, 2010

I admit it, I am addicted. I have wasted more time playing this game than I will ever own up to. I sneak a few games in before work, and as soon as I get home, play a few. I keep telling myself, it's only one minute, in fact the guy in the computer says One Minute when the game starts, so I am really not wasting a lot of time. Except I keep clicking play, after one minute, and one minute becomes 40 minutes. My goal is to not be embarrassed by my score. I see all my friends with these awesomes scores, like in the 100,000 and 200,000 range. I have even messaged them on Facebook, and asked for their secret. Shannon's mom Janet is always on the top. I asked Shannon, and she said, I don't know, but she is always playing it. I asked my soninlaw who worked at Ubisoft in Romania, he said it has to do with the cascades, you have to form cascades. My friend Janet had a very detailed three point explanation involving hypercubes and flaming gems and stuff like that. Joanne F told me that you just have to keep moving your mouse and when you see a cluster click on it. She offered to come over and show me how to do it. That would be pretty lame. So each day I attempt to get a high score, I try cascading, I try the three point theory explained by Janet, I try just playing the game over and over like Shannon's mom, and I tried just moving the mouse around really quick like Joanne suggested. Today, I tried turning the sound off. That was hard, I like the sound. I like when the man in the computer says, Awesome, or Excellent, or Good. It is reassuring that I am doing something right. Plus the sound of the explosions is really cool! But the downside is that you get that annoying beeping kind of sound that tells you your time is almost up. That is a lot of pressure, because I then realize what a loser I really am when I see the puny score that I have achieved. But then something phenomenally awesome happened. My time was up and my score was 179,000. How could that happen, I have no idea what I did! But I am #2, right under Shannon's mom. I can't believe it, this is the most exciting thing that has happened today. This is the highest score I have ever achieved. Only thing is, I have no idea how I did it! Gotta go, I have three minutes till I have to catch the dryer., maybe I can beat my own score!

Day Fifteen, January 20th, 2010

Wow, I have been looking forward to today! My precious niece and godchild, Katie, and her brother, my amazing nephew, Tommy, drove down to my office to have lunch with me today. Katie lives in South Orange where she is taking her final class for her masters degree. Tommy lives in Illinois with the rest of the Sheldons and was here for the week to visit his sister. I was so touched and honored that they wanted to spend some time with their old aunt!~ We used to spend so much time together when they were little. They lived in Jackson and I saw them every week at church, every Sunday after church for bagels, and several times during the week too. Ten years ago, my brother took a job in Illinois and took all the precious little Sheldons with him too. I think it has to be about two years since I have seen Tommy and last summer for Katie. I was so impressed at how beautiful, sophisticated, mature and grown up they are. What a wonderful lunch, with great conversation. I was just in awe at these amazing adults that just not too long ago were little babies. How did that happen! It was so hard to say goodbye to them after lunch, I miss them so much and love them so dearly. Katie and Tommy thanks for the joy you brought to my day!

Day Fourteen, January 19th, 2010

My friend Joanne has to be the luckiest lady in the world because her awesome mom, Sara, lives with her part of the time and part of the time with her sister. When she is at Joanne's house, she usually has her cobbler apron on and is always cooking something delicious. (That's Sara in the picture, dancing at my daughter's wedding!)Joanne wanted me to come over and take some pictures of her upstairs with my digital camera because her fatherinlaw just moved in and is contemplating moving upstairs and he wanted to see what it looked like. She emailed me at work to see if tonight would be good, and also, said, why don't you come to eat, my mom is cooking sausage and peppers. You didn't have to ask me twice! When I got to Joannes (a long walk across the street!), her mom had everything set up and served me too! She made her delicious sausages with three different colored peppers, baked sweet potatoes, and pasta with butter. She also had a great salad with oil and vinegar (what else) and Italian bread. You know, the kind that is crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. What a treat! I never knew my grandmothers, they died before I was born. Being at Sara's tonight, I felt like a little girl must feel in her grandmother's kitchen. Great smells, delicious foods, and extra big ladles of love. Thanks Sara~!