For the past few months, my mom has been planning a new ministry at her church, and it finally got started a few weeks ago. The group is going to make quilts, scarves & gloves, shawls, blankets, etc and give them to people who are going through rough times. There are about 10-20 people involved (it varies each meeting and I can't tell how many there actually are), and several are learning new craft things (quilting, knitting), and it's fun. I'm not actually at home any more, I'm at my school now. So I'm not going to be very involved with it anymore, but it was fun helping my mom and watching her get it off the ground. And, I learned to knit from one of the ladies in the group! That was wonderful, I've been trying to learn for years.
I think last week, I was told about this site called Ravelry, a community for people who knit/crochet. So I joined, and I like it a lot. There's a lot of patterns on there that I want to try, I can't wait. I have to, though, because I don't have enough yarn, or money to buy more, at the moment. Soon, though.
So for now, I am still working on trying to finish 2 crocheted scarves I started about 3-4 years ago and can't seem to focus on and get through. And I started making a pair of slippers, because that's what the lady teaching me to knit said would be the easiest. That's what she learned with.
Pictures when something is finished.
My mom makes these scarves. Really really pretty ones, and very unique. You can't buy any like them in stores (at least, not that I've seen), and while technically anyone could make them, I haven't seen anyone wearing them. And even if others did make them, again, mom's are REALLY pretty. I'm impressed by them.
She took a few to this party at work tonight and was trying to sell one. One person bought one, some others said they were really nice.
I think she should try to sell them online. I think they would sell. She disagrees, but told me I could try.
I think one of her problems might be price. She was selling them tonight for $20 each. While I definitely think they're nice enough, I don't know what normal scarves cost, and if maybe people don't want to spend that much, no matter how nice they are. So I'm going to try to look that up and talk to her about maybe changing it.
I'm really excited. I love the crafty stuff...but truth be told, I am not awesome at it. Definitely not right now, and I don't know if I ever will be GOOD, just BETTER. But I am good with computers. And I love making websites. So I'm thrilled to have a project that I know I can actually get into and do well on. And I think it'd be wicked if they sold really well. Although, maybe not too well, because she has a job and can't spend too much time making more. Plus she's been making me a Ravenclaw scarf for 2 years. (She makes things a lot faster than that, but she keeps putting mine on hold to make some for other people. Which is cool with me. I like seeing all the pretty things she makes)
I'll post more on how that goes later.
I've now restarted my scarf about 8 times. I keep screwing something up and then not being able to figure out what I did wrong. Also, every time I do the second line, I somehow stretch out the thread so I've got about 6 inches or more of string in between the two needles. If my mom starts me out, I can do fine AFTER that...but I don't want to always have to have someone else start my crafts for me. That's pretty lame.
So, after the most recent time I started over, I got frustrated and put the yarn and needles back in the bag. Then I went back to my crochet. It's SO much easier, and it didn't even hurt my hands this time. Of course, I didn't spend a lot of time on it. If I had, it probably would have.
So...what to do? If I spend much time knitting, I feel like throwing something. If I crochet, I wind up with bleeding and aching hands. But I LOVE doing both. When they're not causing pain and annoyance.
I'm hoping to get a knitting loom soon. Hopefully that will make things easier. And if I keep working on it, maybe knitting won't make me so crazy.
I feel like I'm some kind of moron trying to figure out knitting. My little sister and my boyfriend both learned fairly quickly when they tried...and I'm still stuck doing the first part of my first ever project, after 3 days. *sigh*
It will be worth it. I think.
My mom tried to teach me to knit last night. Mostly succeeded, actually. I'm pretty bad at visual learning, though, and it took me many tries. I finally got a few rows. They are sort of uneven, with loose and tight stitches, and they take me longer than I think knitting is supposed to take people.
Still, I made progress. Which is good. I'll keep working on it.
I want this knitting loom I saw at JoAnn Fabrics the other night. It's supposed to be good for beginners. So hopefully I'll be able to figure that out and actually make something good enough to give to someone. Also, there are longer looms, so I can actually make a shawl. My mom doesn't know how to knit something wider than a scarf, so she won't be able to help me learn to make a shawl anyways.
Up next: Going to try to get better at knitting, and MAYBE learn more complicated crochet stitches. And figure out if there's a way to crochet w/o hurting my hand.
