Progress

 I know that the current show I am working on is not perfect but that’s OK. I’m trying to learn new things and I would drive myself batty If I went for perfection on every project.  As long as a shawl looks good from 5 feet away. I have no problems whatsoever. Also, I am not going to point out any mistakes if you are a member of the knitting police you are not welcome near my new shawl.  

You may have noticed that I have stitch markers at the beginning of every row. I have already accidentally torn out this pattern twice. So I’m to the point that if I want to rip out a row or two, I don’t want to rip out the whole shawl. So after I complete a row, I put a movable stitch marker in. If I have to rip out the number of rows, I just removed the number of stitch markers for the number of rows. I want to remove and that way I won’t tear out the entire project by accident again. Wendy from my Knitting Group thought this was a good idea. Wendy is really good at crocheting. 

The shawl is in Tunisian crochet which is my new deep dive project. I love learning new things and Tunisian crochet is so similar to both knitting and crochet but totally different. I want to explore what makes Tunisian crochet so different than crochet and knitting. At this point in time I think it will be a 5 to 10 year project. That’s OK I have a lot of yarn that I can use for crocheting, knitting and Tunisian crochet.  I think projects combining two or more styles would make some wonderful one of a kind projects.  I also think that at some point I can add some of my hand spun yarn too. 

My current project is from a class that I took from Lori of Aklori Designs.  The pattern is called Tunisian Quick Crescent Shawl. 

Taking New Skills Classes

 The best part about taking classes from a published author is that you can buy their books and take them home with you.  I found it was like taking Lori home with me to answer all my questions.  I recently took a class with Lori Harrison at Bird House Yarn here in Tucson. I do admit that the class pushed me in ways I would never have gone.  Almost everything up until that point was self taught by watching you tube tutorials and watching people do Tunisian crochet.  I do admit that I took one class while Eric was in declining health.  My mind was elsewhere, but I as trying to distract myself and get a few hours to just breathe.  It was not in hindsight the best plan to learn new subject matter. 

I wanted to learn to do Tunisian crochet in the round for awhile and a class came up.  I have learned so much from the class. I was able to rip out my class work and change the colors around.  The books and Lori’s on line videos helped immensely.  I am now about to start the 3 round again.  I did a little refresh by looking at the books. 

I also took pictures of the relevant pages to put in my phone, so I can take the project on the go and not carry 2 extra books with me.  That way I can use a much smaller bag for my project.  

Below are  pictures of the front covers of Lori’s books.  Signed copies of both books are available at Bird House Yarns.  I encourage you to buy the Books from Bird House Yarns, both books are available online, or your Local Yarn Shops.  All small businesses are in need of sales right now.  You can find Lori’s website at Aklori Designs.  You will find videos and her complete pattern collection there too.