There hasn’t been much going on here since I talked to you last. I am trying to finish up the little crocheted collar that I showed you on Monday and I have been working steadily on my All Shawl while I am on my lunch hour at work. This is the scene from my desk last week. I get to watch our employees get trained to wear these blue suits with respirators. Aren’t they funny? It’s very hard, hot work, and isn’t for everyone.
On Tuesday evening I had my first session of Crochet 101. I ended up with two students again and this time I had the privilege of teaching a 10 year old who just happens to be left-handed. I loved her enthusiasm and determination to learn. I was also proud of my other student who was in between 18 and 25 years of age and had never been around anyone who crocheted before. But she was also very determined to learn to crochet and I’m happy to report that she did. I can’t wait to see if they still like crocheting as much next week when I start them off with a chain. 😉
This cute necklace was made by someone that I’m keeping an eye on. I have a friend who has a daughter who lives in New York City and she made this necklace. Her daughter, I think has a wonderful product and I wanted to share her Etsy shop, Facebook page, and her Blog with all of you. Go visit all three and see what you think. I dare you to fall in love with her projects and artwork. I think I need one of her lovely necklaces really bad and one of the things that I love the most (besides how talented she is) is that she is using upcycled materials. I hope you love her creations as much I do and feel free to commission her to make you something. 😉
Crochet with Tamara 
Those handmade books are stunning 🙂 What a clever and creative person she must be. I was hoping to see the necklace on etsy as well – maybe if enough people show interest she can do some more?
x
By: Nice piece of work on July 3, 2013
at 3:40 am
You are so right. I have emailed her to ask her the prices of her necklaces and she said around $10-$15. I’ll let her know what everyone suggests for her. Thanks so much for checking her out. Love and Hugs, Tamara
By: tgonzales on July 3, 2013
at 5:00 am
Hey Tamara!
I remember ages ago that you showed a new technique for joining squares, and if I remember correctly, you even took something apart to do it the new way… a shawl, maybe? Anyway, I can’t find that post, and I’m wondering if you can remind me of how you did it. Was it just whip-stitching the BLO? Do you still prefer this method of joining?
Thanks for any help you can provide! You’re a gem!
Have a great week,
mindy
By: mindy on July 3, 2013
at 11:20 am
Hi Mindy!
Yes I have a preferred method of joining grannies and you will find the explanation here: https://crochetwithtamara.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/im-thankful-its-friday-a-lesson-learned-another-bella-rebekah-sweater-a-mystery-crochet-project-and-a-tale-of-two-turtles/ I don’t want to take credit for it because I got it from Attic24’s blog and she has a wonderful tutorial for joining grannies in the way that I prefer. I hope that helps?
Love n Hugs, Tamara
By: tgonzales on July 3, 2013
at 12:11 pm
Thanks a ton!!! I knew you’d send me in the right direction! =D
mindy
By: mindy on July 3, 2013
at 12:19 pm
🙂
By: tgonzales on July 3, 2013
at 12:25 pm
Hiya Tamara!
In your first photo, I thought fur sure John must be one of those masked men (’til I read your post). LOL!
Wow – the art work done by ‘Bits and Books’ certainly is beautiful. [Too expensive for my taste, tho.]
I am so excited about your teaching a 10-yo to crochet. HaHa: I just realized the abbreviation for “year-old” is the same as for “yarn over”. HaHaHa!!
Anyway, I don’t know if I told you that in June 2012, my then-8-yo grandson was here. I was crocheting an afghan during his visit. He asked me to teach him to crochet. Well, this little guy is “very quick” in his learning abilities. We did not have too much time, but I taught him single crochet – and slip stitch for ending his work. Once he got that, I taught him to chain. He (& his siblings) were here for their last visit before moving to southern OR.
I had not heard from him that he was practicing, practicing, practicing his crochet. Imagine my shocked surprise when I got a scarf crocheted by him!!! It is really, really good for his first big project. I am so impressed!! I will send you photos of it in an e-mail.
Anyway, all that these young kids need is a real desire and they can easily learn to crochet. I am just so tickled & so proud of him. I sent him a pkg of cotton yarn (he has not yet crocheted with cotton) and a skein of Red Heart With Love ‘cuz it is so soft (very similar, IMO, to Hobby Lobby’s ‘I Love This Yarn’). His pkg will arrive today!
Sure do wish they had not moved so far away. What fun it would have been to get together with him and teach him more. Well, I recently bought (Amazon) the book “Single Crochet for Beginners”. It arrived the other day and I want to look thru it really well before sending it off to him. It is fantastic, and I know he will be thrilled to have it. Only thing is, he is starting to want to learn double crochet now. That’s okay – I think he will have fun creating some projects with sc that are in this book. The nice thing is that the writer does not use abbreviations (sc, dc) but spells it all out in the patterns. … Oh! Can you tell I am excited FOR him??? 😀
Have fun with your young students!
Lots o’ Love ~~
:: Kat ::
By: Kat on July 3, 2013
at 1:52 pm
Oh Kat!
I love the story about your 8 almost 9 year old grandson. It sounds like he had the determination to learn and he obviously was determined to make his Grandmother a scarf. I loved the pictures of you in your new scarf. Thanks so much for sharing your story. I can’t wait to see his second and third projects. Maybe they will be from the sc book you give him?
Love,
Tamara
By: Tamara on July 3, 2013
at 8:21 pm