I haven’t seen my yarn or beads in a while…. They 
are in a few boxes, under more boxes in
a room full of even more boxes that I know they are hiding. But more boxes are being packed and piled into the same room. Argh, we’ll get there soon. My shelves at the apartment are empty and there are fewer and fewer boxes to pop into the cars and drive over to the house. Moving is such fun….
An update on the painting. I haven’t started because the ceilings in our new home are much higher than I realized. I bought a 3-step stepladder to help get me higher but even at the top step, on my tiptoes, I can only reach the edge of the wall/ceiling with my fingertips. Hmm. That won’t work. So we’re going to need to take the ladder to the house this week so I can actually begin painting. I realize I’m petite (5’2”) but heck, I’m feeling rather dinky trying to reach any of the lights or top of the shelves. Obviously the designer wasn’t this small. So project painting is on hold for a few more days.
In the meantime I decided to update the webpage this past weekend with a new tutorial for crochet. I have helped several friends learn to crochet and one of the things most all of them say is that they can figure out the abbreviations but the crochet charts are Greek to them. Some give up or don’t even bother to try because they look so complicated and confusing. Well, yes and no. Yes, at first they can be very confusing and difficult to understand. After all this is really the international language of crochet where you can read any pattern made anywhere in the world. No translations necessary. I believe this is one crochet skill that really is a must for anyone who wants to get further into the world of fiber art and learn more than just a few things. To start with, you need to learn what stitch or action the basic symbols (characters) represent. You can find a short list on the Symbols & Abbreviations page. Here you can review what symbol represents a chain stitch (ch), half double crochet (hdc) or any other stitch. You can use this as reference for your future chart reading. If you find your pattern has an unusual symbol, you can always look it up online. Once you have this key you can proceed to interpreting (or decoding) the pattern. I’ve made a Chart Tutorial using two simple patterns to get you started on how to read and use the crochet symbols in a chart. The instructions and diagrams are user friendly, and as always if you have any thoughts or questions please feel free to drop me a line. I’ve always enjoyed this method of following crochet patterns better and I think once you get the hang of it you will too. It’s simpler, less confusing and as I mentioned before you can read it no matter what language the pattern itself is in. Give it a try and see if you yourself don’t get hooked on crochet charts too!
