Sunday, September 23, 2012

Learning to Crochet

In the few intervals between heat waves this summer, I've been teaching myself to crochet. I've long known how to do single and double crochet as an edge on knitting, but all else was a mystery. So I pulled out my handy needlecraft book and got at it. Below is my best effort.


It took four tries to get this right. The actual motions of creating a stitch are easy. The difficulty is in counting and keeping track of stitches (heh, just like knitting). Apparently a "chain" is not the same as a "stitch." Except, of course, when you chain two or three at the end of a row; then all those chains together make one stitch. Yikes!

Anyway, it's being fun. I hope to crochet an actual something in the fairly near future.

What's been taking up my time and keeping me away from fiber is pictured below.


Yep. A DVD from The Teaching Company with 36 lectures on Cosmology. Fascinating.  Terrific professor too.  And then, of course, I had to go read a few books about particle physics. It's taken a few months, but soooo worth the time. And now on Twitter I follow a few telescopes and satellites and "hadron colliders" (CERN). It's wonderful to be able to understand their activities and discoveries.

7 comments:

Delighted Hands said...

Nice to know what you have been up to! The crochet is coming very good-once you get the lingo , you will do fine! Enjoy. Love the astronomy books and I am drawn to this area of Science but haven't pursued the education as you are doing!

Tina T-P said...

Good for you on the crochet - sometimes I have to sit down and work out the pattern almost like what I see on Sharon's weaving scales - x's & dbl x's, etc. It mostly takes practice and COUNTING :-) Go to Hooked on Crochet for lots of free patterns and tutorials. T.

Sharon said...

You lost me right after crochet. I'm afraid I was a humanities major. I can spell real good : )

Knitting Linguist said...

Wow! Two very different, and very neat, kinds of learning. I bet the Cosmology course is fascinating. I have to stop myself from "finding" things like that, because I know I don't have the mental energy for it right now - but someday I will, and then look out!

Politics, Painting, Poetry and Ponderings said...

Enjoyed the new painting, poem and crochet. And the cosmology book cover is also stunning - as is the subject. Thanks for all!

Politics, Painting, Poetry and Ponderings said...

I love the country painting. It is realistically peaceful. The two different trees and the fading background add extra interest to it.

Politics, Painting, Poetry and Ponderings said...

The second backyard boat is a feminine and delicate painting. The greenery has a "whispy" effect.
Great...really loved them both!