National Hobby Month gave people an opportunity to showcase their favorite hobby. For me, knitting and crocheting were my favorites. In Wichita Falls, my church had a knitting class, open to any one of any level of knitting or crocheting, where they made sashay scarves which started in August of 2012. It got me out of the house and the Christian fellowship was fun too.
Some projects were difficult, so for me choosing an alternative was better ether because the concept or the supplies were harder to get. In spite of the problem, it was fun learning new terminology.Even though this was difficult for me, not having the right needles or yarn, making a two-skein crocheted baby afghan was my starting point. My knitting needles were too big for the yarn purchased from one of the leaders in the class. Getting to places that sold the yarn and finding the right colors were even harder.
Several people in the class recommended going to Michael’s for knitting needles and the yarn for the sashay scarves because they had the better selection. Most of the time, there were either coupons in the paper or on line. Hobby Lobby and Wal-mart had these supplies too, but not always in the best condition. Both of the latter stores listed ether didn’t have the needles or the yarn was picked over. Unless there was some sort of deal offered at Annie’s Attic, E-Patterns.com, Mary Maxim, Red Heart or Herschner’s one would’ve paid up to $5 or more for the yarn they needed.
It was also difficult making a Mile a Minute Afghan when there was a right-handed person teaching a left-hander. In order to learn this, watching a live demonstration or via web video helped me grasp some of the concepts. Instead of fretting over this, making a Bible bag by altering a pattern for a Granny Square Purse was my second project. The three green grocery bags my mother bought me, got holes in them.
Since the first of the year, several people in this class had decided to make rugs from crocheted plastic grocery bags. For me saving enough to make a rug for the kitchen or bathroom was impossible, there were a lot of promises made but no one actually helped me. My mother thought this was tacky and refused to ask the stores she shopped in for bags. In spite of most of the stores that have gone green, one could’ve still gotten plastic bags from Albertson’s, United Market Street, Wal-mart, Sears, Target, Best Buy, and the Commissary. In doing, this it was wise to remember to stick with one type of grocery bag. Other bags like those for bread and from other places in Sikes Senter Mall had different textures and didn’t work with the other types of bags.
Since starting this class five months ago, learning some of the terminology was fun such as: frogging, what a lifeline was, and how-to weave in loose tails in crocheting and knitting.
- Frogging referred to removing stitches when the crafter made a mistake. When they take a stitch out the crafter had to rip it out.
- A lifeline was a preventative measure for lace work, or any knitting where unraveling and putting back on the needles properly would’ve been tricky or impossible.
- To weave loose tags or tails meant working remaining bit of yarn into already-created stitches to hide the tail.
Who knew what would’ve been learned in the next seven months. Instead of crocheting a plastic bag rug, it might’ve been easier to weave it. Instead of making a two-skein crocheted granny square afghan and an altered Granny Square Purse as a Bible bag, learning to knit them would ’ve been fun too. By watching internet videos, my picking up the concept of the sashay scarf or the Mile-a Minute Afghan was made easier than having it taught by a right-hander. Since the class recommended where to get some of the supplies for these projects listed above, it made it a lot easier to avoid yarn that was picked over, higher prices, or bags of different textures. New terminology for techniques like frogging instead of ripping out, creating a lifeline to save work and how-to weave in tails or tags.
National Hobby Month was a way for people of different skill levels to showcase their talents. My local church knitting class was open to all kinds of skill levels who taught others their new terminology and Christian fellowship.
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