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Hello all
I knit and love doing baby/ toddlers/ children its the sewing together I hate
Trying to finish little cardigan for 12 month old and same pattern for 7 year old DGD the rib has been very difficult and may have to consider trying circular needles best time as fingers get very stiff
My DDad taught me to crotchet blankets after my Dmum died when I was 10 he was in the RAF and could sew and knit well as well
Always wanted to learn how to crochet from patterns but little succes even with you tube
Love Reading along but really only occasionally post on daily post
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday
NRA xxxNewRoadAhead Debts Sep 2009 £35,000.00Debt Free November 2014January GC £ 245.75/£250NSD January 13/10February GC £250.00NSD February 2/158 -
newroadahead - I watch a lot of crochet videos on You Tube - a lot of them use US terms so just have to remember to change to UK ones.
Decluttering Achieved - 2023 - 10,364 Decluttering Target - 2024 - 3,129 May - 132/190
GC NSD 2023 - 242/365
2023 Craft Makes - 245 Craft Spends 2023 - £676.03/£400
Books read - 2023 - 37
GC - 2024 4 Week Period £23.52/£100 NSD - 96
2024 Craft Makes - 229 Craft Spends 2024 £344.41/£5006 -
newroadahead, look up attic24 on the gooogle. Lucy takes lots of photos to show you how to crochet and her patterns are lovely!2024 Fashion on the ration 32/66 used7
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morning all,
I have crochet envie, I wouldn't know where to start , I did buy a kit thing a year or so back , opened to box , got scared and put it away again ..... it seemed to very complicated.
better get my coffee finished and off to work
ttfn
x£223/ £250 GC8 -
Morning everyone - on here before noon!
Sunny day at the seaside.
Plans for the day - really need to finish Easter makes - it is nearly here.Decluttering Achieved - 2023 - 10,364 Decluttering Target - 2024 - 3,129 May - 132/190
GC NSD 2023 - 242/365
2023 Craft Makes - 245 Craft Spends 2023 - £676.03/£400
Books read - 2023 - 37
GC - 2024 4 Week Period £23.52/£100 NSD - 96
2024 Craft Makes - 229 Craft Spends 2024 £344.41/£5007 -
I started to learn to crochet (from a book - long time ago) but couldn't master turning round so basically posh string. I can sew, embroider, mix cement and do lots of other things (have even sewn together crochet patches done by others to make blankets for street kids in South America) so I'm not anxious enough to add more things (to feel guilty about as they sit there sulking at me). I'm working on reducing my craft and embroidery stash and will pass it on to someone else when I can no longer do it. Fortunately last eye test confirmed I'm not going blind just yet (had to give up embroidering on coloured aida a while ago, brights first and then pastels) so have a few more years (with no pressure since I gave up my business and have learnt not to mention projects until I can hand over the finished article).
Both my grandmothers crocheted. I had a shawl for my 21st. I had bought the (very complicated) pattern and the wool and asked grandma M (dad's mum) to make it as my present. It was going well until grandma had a stroke. Grandma F (mum's mum took over). She wasn't as expert as grandma M, but it was nearly completed. I was given the job of making all the tassles for the fringe. Grandma F died the following year. I loved my shawl but always felt slightly guilty that making it had nearly finished off both my grandmas (think guilt is my default setting although I have done my best to get rid of it. I read Anne Oakley's 'Housework' in my early twenties and she said that every woman she interviewed during her research would start by apologising for 'the state of the house'. The majority of the houses were immaculate, run by women dedicated to the purpose but they still apologised. So I resolved never to apologise for the 'state' of my house.
I like it to be tidy and organised but as long as no-one is going to get ill, I cope. I brought up 3 boys by myself so quickly learned that I could spend my time yelling at them to sort their stuff, run myself ragged trying to do it all myself or find a happy medium and live with it. After all, as they frequently told me 'It's our home too'. Every one else's kids were always in my house too or else I was the one out in the backs making a train out of cardboard boxes and painting it with leftover bits of paint and sample pots. DS2 once said that "Every boy in this street thinks this house is perfect". DS2 had a rich friend who had a huge garden and lived a couple of streets from the park entrance but he loved coming to our house because I let them play football on the car park once the cars had gone.
When DS2 went to high school he fell in with the rugby (union) crowd. They all had houses in the best part of town but our tiny terrace was in the centre of town so they would all meet at ours before going off somewhere. At one point (3 boys and me in a 2 bed terrace) I took down the dividing wall to include the upstairs landing (yes I checked carefully first - if I had a £ for every man who's said 'I hope it wasn't a supporting wall' I could buy an extra house). Apparently my boys had the only bedroom big enough to play knee rugby in, if it was raining.
I did get complaints like 'M's mummy irons all his clothes, takes them upstairs and puts them all away for him'. I insisted that this was not my job, my job was to make sure that they knew how to do things for themselves by the time they left to go to university (I folded things straight from the line and left them in a pile on each of their beds). When they started to be interested in clothes and wanted shirts, I taught them to iron a shirt properly. I pressed DS1's trousers for my dad's funeral, describing each stage as I did it and as I finished asked "What was so difficult about that?" He said "Getting you to do it for me."
DS1 and DS2 were fairly organised. Occasionally I would complain about their room, give them a set time to tidy it in and then I went in with the big black bag. Anything not put away would be put in bin bags and taken to my room. I would discard anything broken and dangerous, if they were good they were allowed to have a toy returned and some went to Oxfam. DS3 was different. He would let me put it all in a bag and then tell people sadly that "Mummy had sent all his toys to Oxfam." He had friends who would offer to come in and tidy his toys for him (when they came to the door and asked if he could play).
DS3 is now 30 and he's still a work in progress (and his Beloved isn't much better). I should say that they both have depression and other issues. Normally this suits me because when I'm struggling at least no-one will berate me for things that haven't been done, but sometimes when I would get home from mum's, I would take one look at the kitchen and decide to just go to my room. I fear things have slipped whilst I've been away and not sure how to tackle it (suggested just bagging all the rubbish and putting it out in the garden, then arranging collection and I have the details for a firm that does cleaning including hoarder/ end of tenancy/ student let cleaning). They aren't quite hoarders (quite a lot of anime/ nerd tech stuff), just far too much stuff in a very small house and not keeping on top of the basics. Beloved is a gadget girl, I am not. When she moved in, my kitchen got about twelve new gadgets (including several I don't know what they do or how) and more arrive on a regular basis. I think her family only know how to solve problems by chucking money at them, so if there's a problem, something is ordered off the internet. If it's not the right thing, it just hangs around, taking up space. It's okay if you live in a multi floored house with garages and sheds but not at my house. Her sister was impressed by the size of their bedroom (I gave them the knee rugby one).
Digging was done yesterday and I went back out to pick up a few clods and shovel a few buckets of loose earth (whilst checking out the structure of the fence), washing was done and line dried, census was done, a veggie pasta bake was assembled from veggies prepared/ cooked the day before (enough for leftovers today), dug up tree roots were binned/ washing up tackled, rubbish/recycling out. I am showered and have dealt with 3 crises this morning (much frantic counting of pills, have asked mum to let me do the filling up once a week) so feel justified in staying under the bed clothes a bit longer (lots of bits not working or okay as long as I don't make them do any more). Next door neighbour has 2 young workmen in his yard so don't want to risk exposing myself and putting someone off sex for life. Hopefully I have a tunic in the dried washing as I hung everything else in the wardrobe.
Weather looks undecided but not raining so have a good day everyoneMy mission in life is not only to survive,but to thrive and to do so with some Passion, some Compassion, some Humour and some Style.NST SEP No 1 No Debt No mortgage10 -
Thank ladies for all of your suggestions re crocheting
Finally finished 12 month old cardigan yesterday and DH has taken to the post office Still have DGD cardigan to finish rib is wrong so started to undo last night
Mothernerd loved your stories about teaching your sons to look after themselves
When I was younger my dad remarried and the younger step brother and I were both sent to boarding school
When it was time to get our school trunks packed I was asked to iron his shirts ( my Ddad had been in the RAF so was used to doing his if the need arose after Dmum.died) when I finished the first one he moaned so I took all the shirts sprayed them with starch and gave them to him to do on his own
He then had to learn as I would do them no longer 😗 lesson learned
Right back to the laptop soon
Have a good day all
NRA xxxx
NewRoadAhead Debts Sep 2009 £35,000.00Debt Free November 2014January GC £ 245.75/£250NSD January 13/10February GC £250.00NSD February 2/159 -
Mothernerd, your stories really resonate with me. I won't go into my history again, people must be bored to tears, but my house was more of a youth hostel than a family home. My boys talk fondly of the mad projects we had, the impromptu parties, the kitchen crammed with uninvited visitors for Sunday lunch, the people who came for the weekend and were still there 3 years later, the students, the jockeys from the nearby racing stables.............
A friend once referred to my bohemian life style and I was outraged, but looking back on it she might have had a point.
It was hectic in the extreme, especially as I was running my own school at the same time, but I don't regret a minute of it.
The thing that sticks in everybody's mind is the story that I used to come home from church every Sunday and count the trainers at the bottom of the stairs to see how many I was cooking lunch for.
So much for nostalgia.
I'm very late today, the phone has never stopped.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
Let your weird light shine bright, so that all the other weirdos know where to find you.I believe that friends are quiet angels
Who lift us to our feet when our wings
Have trouble remembering how to fly.12 -
monnagran I once had to go out to buy more plates. We had a couple of the boys' friends staying over and they were making plans for later (meeting up with other friends). I said I was going to do brunch and they all decided they would meet at ours. Revised the numbers and had to go and buy extra plates. I only used to buy cheap sets (3 boys) so would just go and buy as the need arose - WW did lovely packs which were often on sale and you could buy the 'dinner set' or individual extra plates. Available in white or blue, we went through several of both.
My mission in life is not only to survive,but to thrive and to do so with some Passion, some Compassion, some Humour and some Style.NST SEP No 1 No Debt No mortgage9 -
Morning fencers,
Had an abysmal nights sleep, so unlike me. I think I read and did crosswords and sudokus most of the night, so have only just woken up. Managed to totter out to the kitchen and have just climbed back into bed with a comforting mug of coffee. Forgive me if I make even less sense than usual.
One thing learned from my chaotic life, and I bet you are the same mothernerd, is that catering for large numbers is strangely familiar. I have since, catered for lunch clubs, church functions, organisations looking after the homeless, parties and other occasions where large numbers need to be fed with, if not ease, then a certain amount of confidence.
Anyway, that is all in the past. Now I am enjoying the quiet freedom of lockdown. I'm almost ashamed of how much I've enjoyed it. I really must have been a hermit in a past existence.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
Budget: a mathmatical confirmation of your suspicions.I believe that friends are quiet angels
Who lift us to our feet when our wings
Have trouble remembering how to fly.10
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