[Nfb-krafters-korner] Dropped Stitches

[Blindhands at aol.com]

Isn't that weird that we do that.  I am talking about bending over our  
work coming closer and closer to it and not even realizing that I am doing  
that.  It seems like the more you concentrate on it and get absorbed into  the 
task I tend to do that.  
 
I am learning how to cane chairs.  I have at this point completed the  
first 5 steps.  So far so good.  Last week was the, "I just don't get  it".  It 
is the first diagonal.  I had spent time feeling the cane  work that I had 
done. [no clue on how I was going to figure out a  diagonal].  My instructor 
wove in 2 diagonal rows.  I did not have any  idea which ones they were.  I 
felt and felt and then realized I was bent  over the chair so much and since 
I have no light perception getting on top of it  wouldn't help me out.  I 
finally sat up and leaned back in the chair and  the instructor asked me, Did 
I find it"?  I answered nope and said I have  to figure out another way.  I 
suggested howabout weaving something that  felt different.  She got this 
small 1/4 inche ribbon that felt silky, but  then I couldn't feel that.  I 
pulled a skein of yarn out of my bag[yep, I  carry a hat in progress on my 
circs in my bag all the time] and now both of the  instructors were over with me 
putting it in the weave.  I could feel the  end of the yarn and a little of 
the diagonal, but still did not have a clue how  it got that way.  I went 
home and thought about it over the weekend.   I went back there on Monday 
with a handful of rubber bands.  Since the  chair is large enough that you need 
to spread your arms out to feel the front  corner and the back of the 
chair, as soon as I put my hands on the seat I lost  my orientation to diagonal.  
Front and back did not give me any trouble as  I either sat the chair in 
the direction and then I sat facing either the back or  the side.
 
Well I know I got lengthy with this, but I have to tell you when the light  
bulb went off above my head.  I first tried the rubber bands with the  
instructor insisting that this will not work.  Little did I know I was  heading 
in the right direction.  It did give me a tactile feel of the  direction in 
smaller increments.  Then the other instructor came over and  she made this 
comment to me, You work it like stairs. So you come up out  of the hole and 
go down in the hole above that one and then you move over  one row and come 
out the hole on the same row you are on.  I said the,  "shape of a stair up 
the riser of the stair and over the top of the  stair?"   She told me yes.  
I have now learned how to do that  going upward and downward and when I 
return after the holidays I should finish  off the top of the chair doing in 
that.  I have finished about 3/4 of  the seat.  I still have the other 
direction of the diagonal to learn and  then the last finishing around the edge.!    
 
Joyce  Kane
 
What a  learning experience.

www.KraftersKorner.org  (http://www.krafterskorner.org/) 

Blindhands at AOL.com