[Nfb-krafters-korner] Last Monday 8/2 Night Special Chat Interview Davey Hulse, author, A Touch of Yarn

Henrietta Brewer gary.brewer at comcast.net
Tue Aug 10 20:06:07 UTC 2010 

Hi Audry,
Very good write up about the chat.  I must have 
missed a bit, you told more then I remember.  Thanks for this write up.
HenriettaAt 04:07 AM 8/10/2010, you wrote:
>Davey Hulse, Guest Speaker, author of “The 
>Touch of Yarn”  discussion     On last 
>Monday night, August 2nd, our special telephone 
>chat was attended by approximately 20 people to 
>hear our special guest, Davey Hulse, author of a 
>great book called “The Touch of Yarn” 
>discuss this great primer for all knitters. His 
>book teaches his personal techniques and 
>viewpoints on how to master the art of knitting 
>blind. Â  Â Â  Mr. Hulse started his knitting 
>obsession approximately three years ago to help 
>keep his hands busy and out of the potato chip 
>bag while listening to his many downloaded books 
>on Jaws. As he noticed the expansion of his 
>girth getting out of “hand” he decided to 
>curtail his wandering hands by taking up a 
>hobby. Â Â Â  He started exploring his new hobby 
>quest by doing latch hook work, but he needed 
>the assistance of his wife to read the grid 
>patterns for him. This curtailed his wife’s 
>activities also, and he desired to work a bit 
>more independently on his own hobbies. Ten years 
>prior to this he had accompanied his mom on a 
>trip to the yarn shop where they purchased long 
>needles for him to practice with. Their length 
>seemed to frustrate the learning process even 
>further.  Along with this frustration came the 
>lack of printed Braille instructions not clearly 
>defining the pattern information to follow or 
>precise instructions for the intricate hand 
>positions and stitches to be taken.  He had 
>more split yarns, holes and dropped stitches 
>than he wanted to deal with.  So out of this 
>frustration grew an idea that there need to be a 
>better manual written to help with step by step 
>instructions written in succinct detail. Â 
>  His other business as CEO of “Braille 
>Plus” in the state of Washington was doing 
>well at the time so he toyed with the 
>opportunity to bring his book to life. Finally 
>while sorting through a sack of unfinished 
>forgotten masterpieces of hope (uneven pieces of 
>slippery acrylic yarn projects with holes 
>everywhere), he felt sorry the person they 
>belonged to never had the opportunity to find a 
>proper coach to assist them with finishing their 
>precious garments to pass on to the loved ones. 
>Out of this inspiration sprang his 130-140 
>printed page instruction manual with 16 or 17 
>chapters explaining in detail such things as, 
>how to tell the difference between a skein and 
>ball of yarn, how to fix dropped stitches and 
>how to properly label your Goodwill sack of 
>yarn. Â Â Â  Mr. Hulse also changes standard 
>stock patterns so they challenge his interest by 
>incorporating new stitches into mundane standard 
>patterns to hold his interest while working. Â Â 
>Â  Joyce Kane our president asked a question for 
>a member (Terrence) that could not be at our 
>chat. “How are you as a male knitter 
>perceived?”  Mr. Hulse answered that he hoped 
>that people seen him more as a blind knitter 
>than a guy who knits. They seem to be more 
>amazed by the “blind” than the “guy”. He 
>gave an analogy of the difference between how a 
>woman shops for yarn than a man.  A woman needs 
>to touch and feel the yarn, then they just have 
>to purchase that “feel good” yarn for a 
>project in the future, but then come back the 
>following day to scarf up the rest “just in 
>case” or perhaps find another “feel good” 
>skein to match that future project. When a guy 
>goes to the yarn shop he purchases a huge 
>quantity of yarn, takes it home never to 
>resurface again until his stash is completely 
>depleted. A guy is not a stash saver, nor does 
>he pet or fondle the yarn. He only keeps enough 
>on hand to complete one or two projects at a 
>time. Â Â Â  Next question asked was ­ What 
>method  does he use to label his yarn, 
>Braille?  He used to use Braille labels on zip 
>lock bags but now uses his “I” phone with an 
>audio labeling system. You can hear more about 
>this system on, www.digit-eyes.com. This system 
>was compared as a Pen friend on steroids. Mr. 
>Hulse stated that the Digiteyes works with Avery 
>labels and they are developing “washable and 
>reusable” labels soon.  The new ID summit 
>(his competition) scans bar code labels that 
>tell exactly what the item is, whereas Smart 
>Phone is used with Digiteyes. With his Smart 
>Phone and Digiteyes he now puts on his own audio 
>label indicating, color, fabric content, etc., 
>that can be recited back to him. Â Â Â Â  The 
>next question asked ­ When do you give up on a 
>projject?  Mr. Hulse answers that the learning 
>curve is agonizingly slow. It took him a long 
>time to get comfortable with the feel of his 
>knitting. This depends on how stubborn an 
>individual is. There are drawbacks with physical 
>problems like diabetic neuropathy making it 
>harder to feel your mistakes, but switch to 
>thicker larger needles and yarn and just “Go 
>Big”. He also enlightened his audience to the 
>use of squared needles that are the same gauge 
>as the round needles to compensate for this lack 
>of nerve ending feeling and be more comfortable 
>in your hands. Â Â  Â Â Â Â Â Â  Eileen asked ­ 
>Were you self taught or ddid you have help?  He 
>said he was self taught. Â Â  Â Â Â Joyce asked 
>­ You talked about establishing a websitte in 
>the near future, please explain. He said that it 
>should be ready next month, but in the meantime 
>he could be reached at: Â 
>davey at brailleplus.net        He will be 
>developing a series of smaller pamphlets like 
>“How to Modify a Pattern to keep yourself 
>entertained” costing only $3-$10.00.  He 
>wanted to have something to breakaway from the 
>massive size of his 200-300 page Braille manual 
>that would be more convenient to carry. Â Â Â Â 
>Â  Jewel asked ­ How do you weave in two 
>different colorss when knitting.   His 
>response ­ very carefully! Alonng the edge of a 
>seam, and in a situation of narrow strips - 
>carry the yarn to the next corresponding row and 
>knit it into the next row of the same 
>corresponding color. Â Â Â Â Â  Eileen explains 
>a different technique of knitting in a 
>counterclockwise manner over the next twelve or 
>thirteen stitches then tails track back with a 
>tapestry needle. Mr. Hulse refers to this method 
>as the “candy cane” method.       The 
>next question asked ­ Does hhe use a gauge 
>swatch?  He claims he uses larger than 4x4 
>swatches. He gave us a helpful hint of carrying 
>a 4 x 6 index card in your pocket for instant 
>measuring. It can be folded several ways to 
>obtain proper measurement without having to 
>carry a ruler.  By making larger samples you 
>can see the drag of your yarn swatch when it’s 
>knitted. And always measure repeatedly to keep a 
>check on your tension gage problems. Â Â  Â Â 
>You can purchase Mr. Hulse’s book, “A Touch 
>of Yarn”, from the Lion Brand website in a 
>down loadable large print or Braille format for 
>$19.95. Â Â Â  Respectfully submitted, Â Â 
>  Audrey Wellner, Secretary      NFB 
>Krafters Korner division --- On Mon, 8/9/10, 
>Blindhands at aol.com <Blindhands at aol.com> wrote: 
>From: Blindhands at aol.com <Blindhands at aol.com> 
>Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] Monday Night Chat 
>To: nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org Date: Monday, 
>August 9, 2010, 5:38 PM This week it will be an 
>open discussion for our Chat.  So drop in 
>and  see what is going on at Krafters Korner. 
>218 862 3242 Dawn's Den, hit #1 twice and then 
>enter code # 50 and you are  there! August 23 
>we will have Fun Making Paper Flowers.  More 
>information on  that will be coming. 
>Joyce  Kane 
>www.KraftersKorner.org 
>(http://www.krafterskorner.org/) 
>Blindhands at AOL.com 
>_______________________________________________ 
>Nfb-krafters-korner mailing list 
>Nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org 
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org 
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get 
>your account info for Nfb-krafters-korner: 
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org/rencraft%40snet.net 
>_______________________________________________ 
>Nfb-krafters-korner mailing list 
>Nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org 
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org 
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get 
>your account info for Nfb-krafters-korner: 
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org/gary.brewer%40comcast.net 
>

Henrietta
~I wish you enough~

More information about the NFB-Krafters-Korner mailing list