Well, people. It has been a very busy few weeks over here on my end. After some discussions with my obstetrician (baby doctor, for those who don’t know), we decided it would be best for me to take some time off of teaching before this baby arrives end of November. It was a decision I agonized over, but ultimately I needed to put my own health and my unborn daughter’s health first, as it is getting crazy out there.
So this means a few things for me, the first being that I am very glad I planned my learning project to be skill focused for myself since I am no longer with students everyday; the second is that I am now going to have more time on my hands when I am resting to practice my new fav skill: crochet! (Does it still take me two tries to type the word crochet every single freaking time?! Yes, yes it does.)
Moving on! Week before last I began to choose some specifically left-handed crochet tutorial videos on YouTube (I’ll link my playlist I created here), and I found what has become my touchstone for this learning project: Bella Coco Crochet, this lady is from the UK and her videos are just lovely. She moves at a good pace and has nice looking beginner projects for users to work on.
I did some basic tutorials on some stitches just to get a feel for things without trying an actual project first using this video and worked that out for a few days. I included some pictures below.
Since my husband is quite technologically savvy, he suggested that I try using an iPhone mount to film my progress during my new projects. We ordered this mount off of Amazon and it works really well, we attached it to a little tripod we already owned and I just set it up on the couch next to my laptop so that I could follow the YouTube tutorial and control my iPhone. Dalton suggested during one of our breakout sessions that I try using the time lapse feature in the camera app on my phone, and it worked really well! Here is my first project video in super-speed form!
Here is a picture of my first completed granny square!
Here are some takeaways about what I learned in this past week (and a bit):
- This is very different than knitting – I understand how polarizing these hobbies are more so now and why it hasn’t stuck before. Very different skills required!
- In order to do a more challenging project, I’ll need to refer to right-handed tutorials & patterns, which means I will need to adapt for myself, something I never had to do with other learning. Good perspective!
- I could spend hours scrolling Pinterest and Ravelry searching for different patterns (Ravelry is a free membership site where makers from all over the world can post patterns for knitting and crochet, some free and some paid), it leads to choice paralysis, I realized I needed to just pick one video and go with that, as I still lacked many basic skills to do some of the beautiful projects I was pinning to my crafty board.
So that is my recap of the week, it was a full one in and amongst finishing up school. I have made a list of things that I would like to accomplish, so I am very motivated to keep going!
You are going to have a lot of time now to practice crocheting! I think resting at home away from the Covid craziness is a wise idea. I appreciated the time-lapse video and how you added that in! I need to learn how to embed a video/gif into my posts. My project involves my students so I need to figure out a safe way to include them learning in our classroom.
Keep crushing that crocheting!
Riley, I love that you were able to make such an important decision for yourself. Who knows what the fall will bring and you and your (future) family’s health is definitely the most important! My mom is big into knitting and crocheting and it is definitely an art. She learnt the basic from my grandmother, but has taken advantage of the world of youtube tutorials and online patterns in the last decade for sure. I appreciate your time-lapse video. I am not doing a skill based project so me to to use a time-lapse wouldn’t necessarily be as impactful. Keep up the great work and I wish you and your baby a relaxing last few weeks!
Hi Riley, I really enjoyed the timelapse section of your post. It provides a in depth experience as to the process of knitting without having to watch for an extended period of time. Also, I was impressed with your eye concetration and focus in the video, I might have to try it to build hand eye coordination.
I really like the idea of being able to use your left and right hands for these tasks and building a bit of fine motor skills in your non dominant hand. I am excited to see where your next post will take you!
I really like how you did a time-lapse video to showcase your newfound talent. This is definitely a skill that takes time and lot of focus, two things that I don’t seem to have lately. I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with! I always wish that I could pick up the needles and get to work, but it hasn’t stuck with me yet. I appreciate how you are building your motor skills with both of your hands. This is a great thing to do to build strength. I am glad that you are able to be away from the kiddos to help keep your family and new babe safe. You’ll have a little bit more free time to create some wonderful things (or here’s to hoping anyways). Good luck!