Cruisette on Fox River on 9.20.09

See my previous blog about this. Here are some more photos taken by the staff of the Wool and Company yarn store in Geneva, IL.

DOUBT aka Crochety Crocheter

Mary, one of my crochet students, attends Country Thunder every year. This involves camping out and a lot of country western themed activities. When I came across a pattern for a cowboy hat, I just knew it was meant for Mary. I saw that the pattern was not for a beginner like Mary, but just knew how much she would like to wear a cowboy hat which she crocheted for herself to Country Thunder. The pattern was complex. However, I, wearing my own imaginary Wizard in Teaching Crochet" hat figured I (that's a capital "I") could teach her. While I know my crocheting skills are good, I also know that they pale in comparison to the skills of Gwenn and Marge and BJ at the crochet guild. However, when it comes to TEACHING -- well I say from on top of my WIZARDry Stool, ( where I am ignorantly precariously perched,)" I can teach anybody to crochet anything." Hah!

When Mary started crocheting the hat, under my "expert" tutelage (Hah again), it didn't go so well. After the first so-called lesson, I took the pattern home and tried to crochet at least the first few rounds so that I could show Mary how to do it.
"There's something wrong with this pattern. I'm sure this pattern wasn't tested before it was published. This is too complex. I could do a better job of writing this pattern. There are mistakes in the way it is written." and so on, and so on, I told Mary, who listens to her crochet guru!!!
Mary keeps plodding away and doing some frogging under my expert tutelage using a "BAD PATTERN." I, too, crochet, frog, crochet, frog so many times, saying bad words until I begin to DOUBT not the pattern this time but me. With the help of Mary and Donna who each hold a ball of pink yarn, (this is a two strands together pattern) and roll the yarn back into the ball while I rip out the stitches, this time to the very first slip knot. The expert crochet teacher has alas and alack become the crochety crocheter!
In the quiet of my recliner, with the TV turned off, I try once more from the very beginning - and low and behold, the pattern works! Complex, yes! Wrong, no!
I type out the pattern for Mary, eliminating the abbreviations which she finds confusing, and add a few words of explanation in RED type, and we start over again.
I guess the moral of this story -- is to SHUT-UP about the pattern, and stay off high perches of Wizardry. Granted some patterns are poorly written, but more are even poorly interpreted. And I am -- your not so wizardry Dorothy who is clicking her heels and returning to KANSAS.
Don't give up Mary! I may not be wizardry nor the expert crocheter of my dreams, but I don't give up. You will crochet your cowboy hat, and I will crochet mine, and Iwill take pictures of you wearing yours and publish it on this very own blog (I hope). : >}

Crocheter's Birthday

My Mom taught me to crochet -- I come from a family of crocheters. I still have a rug I crocheted from bulky rug yarn for my little Cocker Spaniel, Blackie. It is pink and blue squares. I was using a special technique to create the squares. I had never seen a crochet pattern at that time. The rug must be about 50+ years. I will take a foto of it and post it on this blog. The foto is of my Mom in Burlington, Iowa.

Today, Feb. 22, is Mom's birthday. She was named Martha after Martha Washington the wife of George whose birthday is Feb. 22. My swedish grandmother and her many sisters and relatives crocheted and knitted. My aunt Elsie, my Dad's sister, crocheted all the fine altar linens for St. Mary's church. I didn't pick up a crochet hook for about 35 years, but when I did my hands remembered the moves. I found someone to teach me how to read and a pattern and helped me advance beyond the single crochet I did as a child. After 4 lessons, my teacher said I didn't really need her anymore - I could read a pattern, and she told me that I just needed the confidence in crocheting which she gave me. I took off like a rocket after that, and haven't stopped.

Technology

The explosion of technology, computerized communication, has reached me, but alas, does not seem to have reached the crochet community which is a definite deficit. Pam from the NIC of CGOA is working to change that by suggesting a crochet chapter blog. Unfortunately I missed the Feb. meeting where she suggested it, but someone brought up using a WIKI instead. Either would be great, and would be a step towards joining the tech society to promote crochet.

One example of using tech crochet is what happened when I subscribed to Google Reader. I told the Reader to search for the word CROCHET -- I was blown away at the results -- tons and tons of blogs, published articles, website, news items appeared. I chose several to subscribe to so I receive news from these whenever I pull up my Google Reader. It is a gold mind find. There was a crocheted, life-size gas station, complete with the pumps. In another article, the government is after someone who is crocheting covers for trees, light posts, stop signs, posts, etc. They want him/her to stop decorating their town with crochet. Imagine having the law after you for crocheting! Fun.It's titled Anonymous Crocheter hits Parkersburg. Really great stuff. Someone is promoting crocheted Dahlias. They are about 5 feet talk, basically round but resembling a candy corn shaped human being. He's wants all crocheters to join in and populate the world with these Dahlias. There is a crocheted car - yes I said CAR on the Web. I think the CAR should visit the gas station don't you? Somewhere there is a giant water tower covered with a giant crocheted cover on it. Crochet is comforting - I guess even for a lonely water tower! Maybe we could put together a crocheted town - the gas station, near the water tower and the car parked at the gas station!!! My imagine is getting the best of me. There is an article about Crocheting Combined with Dance, reported in The Weekly Volcano out of Tacoma.The Crochet World has Exploded. In order to promote it we need to know about it - and hi tech is the way to go.

I have a WIKI created for a group of 7 of us who went Mallinckrodt in Wilmette together, way back when. Using the WIKI is so easy This WIKI is not open to the public, but by invitation only. It's just for us girls to share memories, fun, photos and keep updated on each other's lifestyles. I may open it up to the public eventually because I am looking for the rest of us in our group, and perhaps they might find us on the web, but right now it is a nice little cliche or soon will be- I just started the WIKI and am still designing it, so I haven't invited the rest of the group yet. It is called SEVEN S'ters.

There is even a sorta contest for the ten best Crochet Sites, and the ten most subscribed to sites. NIC could be one of those. To learn more about using the worldwideweb read a book called BLOGS, WIKIS, PODCASTS by Will Richardson. OHHH speaking of podcasts, there are some of those on the net, too. I haven't found a lot of them, but boy oh boy what a great way to showcase crochet. We could video one of the NIC meetings or teaching part and make a podcasts out of it. Podcasts are mostly just audio, but I like the VIDEO ones better. I'm doing my part to promote crochet on the net. It's the way to go. Crochet is alive and well.