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Post by ShariZ on Jun 22, 2017 17:30:25 GMT
Hi my name is Shari, I now live in NJ. I make jewelry and I knit. I am working on a ring with a 5x5mm square bezel. I am up to making sure the stone sits correctly in the bezel and then cutting into the shank for the square bezel to sit in it. I take jewelry classes at the 92st Y in NYC.
I also knit. I started again to make a pink hat back in January. I am just finishing Xandy Peters Salt Water Taffy wrap. I go to a store in Mt. Holly, NJ to sit around and knit. It's an independent project class. You bring what you are working on and there is someone there to give you help if you need it (in my case when you need it). You can see the project on Ravelry. The yarn for the project was hand dyed the owner of the store that I take the classes at, Woolbearers. Next I am thinking of making a felted bag with the yarn I bought when I went to Iceland this winter.
My WW story. I started WW in 2005. I got to goal in 2007, now I am 10 pound over goal, so I started working the program for real again. Hopefully the new point system will work for me. I was a finance director in an advertsing agency, got laid off, went to school to become a massage therapist. I am sort of 1/2 retired. I lost 75 pounds and have kept 65 of them off since 2007. I had lost 85 pounds back in 1988, but quickly put them back on, plus another 15, when I was first diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Three years ago, my thyroid was removed and now I am struggling not to gain back the weight I lost.
Shari
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Post by Erin Shadle on Sept 2, 2017 4:51:04 GMT
Hi, everyone. I was looking into Simply Filling today, and finding the Weight Watchers official site to be lacking in detailed information and a way to have / follow a discussion about any one topic.
When I Googled "weight watchers discussion", this popped up. And after browsing for just a few minutes, I knew that the crafting group was the place to drop my first note.
My name is Erin! On weightwatchers.com my username is turn-and-run. I'm 32, have been a member since January, and have been thoroughly ignoring my membership since March. What I HAVE been doing is a lot of crochet. A LOT. You'd think that would keep my hands busy and away from mindless eating, but no. I seem to have grown a third (and sometimes fourth) hand specifically for grazing and bingeing, things I hadn't struggled with in years until I joined WW back in January.
Between all of the eating, I've somehow managed to teach myself a lot of crochet. I've known how to chain and single crochet since I was ten, but it never progressed beyond there until I was about 22, when I expanded my mad skillz to include double and half-double stitches! Man, I was fancy. Despite my mastery of the stitches, I never really worked on how to turn them into anything that required precision or actual, you know, counting. Mostly, I made scarves.
After some rather profound personal losses last August, and the grief that I am still trying to slog through, I picked up a half-finished blanket and my hook in October of last year and just...crocheted. I finished the blanket (it was massive, and it was just a REALLY TALL version of my default scarf) and appreciated that it had kept my hands busy, and my heartache kind of in check, and my brain just a bit distracted, and that everything I was thinking and feeling and going through was twisted into this heavy (so very heavy), soft, wildly imperfect blanket. Physical creation from trauma, right?
Well, I picked a pattern, after that. I tried new yarns. I tried different hooks (love wood hooks; can no longer stand metal or plastic). I tried new stitches and patterns and combinations thereof. I know where the first stitch in a new row goes, without fail. AND where the last stitch in the previous row goes! Score! No more tilted work! I have made gorgeous baby blankets for friends welcoming new life, and it has helped redirect the love that I have from my own losses that buzzes around with nowhere to land. I've done a blanket in small squares, each stitched together in the corners as I go with delicate picot stitches. I've taught myself to read diagram patterns (and sometimes I even prefer them), and even, for the sake of two mirror image pieces, experimented with crocheting backward and it worked! I had two mirror image wings. They were perfect. I have not yet learned the bullion stitch, but I have mastered the mock-bullion and the results were so beautiful. I have stitched my emotions into my work to send to far-flung friends who need a hug when things are rough.
Recently, I'm taught myself amigurumi. Making stuffed animals. What started out as a fun way for me to learn has turned into making the same dragon six times in a row for friends who saw the original one and now I don't want to so much as look at another dragon. But wait, this one's adorable...
I'm here to learn about Simply Filling, and about doing SF as a vegetarian. But really, I'm here for the crafty camaraderie.
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Post by hallian on Feb 24, 2018 15:36:33 GMT
Hi all, I just joined this forum and would love to talk about crafts. Let's see. I sew clothing, not quilts. I've sewn since the mid-70s and sew most of my own clothing. In the last few (5 or 6) years I started to dabble in knitting and jewelry making. I started to take knitting more seriously and have started to accumulate yarn. When I felt like I couldn't knit fast enough to use all the yarn that was calling to me, I bought a knitting machine. Are there any machine knitters here? I just finished a lacy scarf. It took just a couple of hours on the knitting machine. It would have taken me at least two months to hand knit.
What I want to try to knit now is my first sock - by hand. I have been practicing magic loop and am just trying to figure out if I have to use sock yarn which I don't like because it is too thin and you have to use those tiny fiddly needles. I want nice warm bulkier socks.
That's what I am up to.
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Post by DebDoesWW on Feb 25, 2018 2:36:22 GMT
Oh geez, got a reminder on the general board about this board and I am so sorry I missed everyone’s post! hallian I had JUST bought one right before Harvey. I am a crocheter but I saw that and thought, hey I can do that 🤣 I just saw the box today it looked a tad mangeled, I hope it survived with all the pieces but I was really looking forward to learning how to do it.
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Post by hallian on Feb 25, 2018 3:23:08 GMT
DebDoesWW , Ooh, I hope your machine survived. Sorry you went through Harvey. I hope you didn't lose too much. I am just learning to machine knit and I think there's a pretty decent learning curve. I like it though. It's fast.
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Post by DebDoesWW on Feb 25, 2018 4:07:44 GMT
Thank you hallian. We took in 6.5’ so the downstairs was toast. I have about 15 boxes of stuff that survived (maybe?) that I still have to go through and see, it was all just kind of grabbed in a huge mangled mess so no clue what has really made it. It is just stuff though, everyone made it through which is what matters. Fast is good! I tried to learn knitting once and kept making mistakes and ripping it all out. It is supposed to be relaxing and it had me all stressed out. 🤣 that is why I grabbed the machine.
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Post by hallian on Feb 25, 2018 15:53:59 GMT
DebDoesWW, I like knitting but your first experience sounds like mine. My husband said I spent the whole time muttering and grumbling and throwing out a few expletives. I do want to get better at hand knitting, but there are so many things I want to knit that would take me so long. I decided a machine would enable me to finish knitting something in a reasonable time. It already has.
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Post by judy709 on Mar 14, 2018 18:22:03 GMT
I am a beginner knitter. I have known how to knit since I was younger, but did not really do any until I joined a work group that knits every Friday. I am still pretty basic but learning on the "blocks" to try different patterns.
Right now, though, I am working hard on a prayer shawl/lap blanket for a friend whose husband has cancer.
I loved reading what the rest of you had to say and I especially chuckled at Erin's comment about growing a third hand to snack. LOL I relate to that, but knitting does help me keep my hands out of the food at night sometimes. I struggle with staying on track, but will NEVER give up. I swear, I'll be 90 and still trying. No quitting- that's my mantra.
I live in MA and love going out to a store called WEBS in western MA. Does anyone know about WEBS?
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Post by DebDoesWW on Mar 18, 2018 15:08:52 GMT
judy709, I just Googled WEBS, wow!!! I love the page with all the restaurants and hotels listed LOL I would totally be road tripping there if I lived in the area. It reminds me of when I was a kid and there used to be yarn stores all over the place. I think my favorite was called Super Yarn Mart, if I remember right, I could have stayed in that place for days just looking.
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Post by gramma15 on Apr 15, 2018 21:22:33 GMT
Just came over to check to see if this site was still going and I see a lot of new faces. Deb, so sorry that you had to go thru all that with Harvey.
I've been trying to work more on my crocheting since I have enough yarn to supply a small town. I made a ton of Cabbage patch doll clothes for the younger grands. I had the dolls and wanted to get rid of those and knew the little grandaughters would love clothing to go with them. For awhile they all wanted shawls. Now they all want fingerless gloves, Bible covers, and ds and ddil want a Christmas Tree skirt so I have my list. There are also things my dh would like me to make for him. I also just finished some things for my dd and ddil for their birthdays so I'm keeping myself busy.I also make hats and and gloves to donate and have some baby blankets to donate also.
Happy crafting everyone.
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