[NFB-Krafters-Korner] Introduction

[Tracy Carcione]

Hi Gina.
Good for you, busting out of your comfort zone and trying new things!  The
panels you are creating sound neat.
Crochet is good for making flowers and other kinds of decorations.  There
are lots of free patterns online, + instructions for learning to crochet.
Bookshare also has a book called Blooming Crochet, which has a variety of
hats and flowers to decorate them with.  I bet the flowers could as easily
be used in other ways besides for hats.

I have been blind most of my life.  I was lucky and got a good education,
including braille at an early age, and now I have a good job as a computer
programmer.
My mom taught me to knit and crochet when I was a kid.  I stopped doing
either for a long time once I started college, but I picked knitting back up
10-15 years ago, and restarted some crochet a couple years back.  I've
become a good knitter, and I'm getting better with crochet.
Welcome to the list.
Tracy
 

-----Original Message-----
From: NFB-Krafters-Korner [mailto:nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Georgina Joyce via NFB-Krafters-Korner
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 5:55 PM
To: List for blind crafters and artists
Cc: Georgina Joyce
Subject: [NFB-Krafters-Korner] Introduction

Hello All,

I was born in Northampton a boot and shoe market town in the middle of
England. I now live in the North West between Manchester and Liverpool. At
the age of 11 I was taken to a residential school for partially sighted
children and deaf children. They promised my parents that I would be taught
braille. This was not true. At this school is what I would guess in today's
language was for children with learning difficulties. I was looking forward
to doing the 11 plus exam in my old school and was disappointed when they
assured me that I wouldn't be taking any exams while at this residential
school. Instead of academic studies we did jewellery making, candle making,
basket weaving and the most useful was touch typing. When I left school I
made a few baskets and trays for people. It was obvious I would never be
able to make a living from it as the raw materials were expensive. These
baskets and trays were either willow or a plastic cane.

It wasn't until my 30's when I took opportunities to study. I have achieved
a lot having studied computing and psychology. I have struggled to find
gainful employment and undertake voluntary work. I have RP and now I am 60 I
have no useful sight. As RP means loosing sight slowly it is easy to adapt.
More frightening is the loss of high frequency hearing. I am currently
adapting to using hearing aids.

I have always tried to play it safe and I am fed up with it. Decorating my
home and dressing plainly just to be safe is not being true to myself. I did
do some knitting some years ago but needed a lot of support in correcting my
dropped stitches. I like wearing hair clips and pieces and think it would be
easy to make flowers to wear in my hair. I could jazz up some of my plain
clothes etc. with other decorations.

I made some acoustic panels a few years ago to create a nice audio recording
environment. I have used recycled decorating cloths and removal blankets to
face them. As these materials are a variable shade of grey. I thought if I
attach upholstery sparkly buttons I could create the affect of the night
sky. Then I found that it is easy to buy cloth cut shapes to make flowers so
I am exploring these possibilities too. Which has brought me to hear. I was
discussing these panel designs on the woodworkers for the blind email list
and I was pointed to this list.

I have purchased some chunky yarn and a knitting loom set. Which I think
will arrive tomorrow. But deliveries are rather disrupted at the moment.

I can see there are some useful books on Kindle and have purchased a couple
on loom weaving. I have joined the U.S. Book Share service and have been
setting up my iPhone with a braille display today in order to read books and
will see what works well for me. I see the book of the month "Small Loom &
freeform weaving" is available on kindle. I will start working through it
soon.

I look forward to a creative colourful future.

Gena

Call: M0EBP
DMR ID: 2346259
Loc: IO83PS
73

_______________________________________________
NFB-Krafters-Korner mailing list
NFB-Krafters-Korner at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org
Division Website:  http://www.krafterskorner.org
Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/NFB-Krafters-Division/269246643109571
Krafters-Korner Blog http://krafterskorner.org/
"Follow NFB Krafters Korner on Twitter: Our Handle is @craftingblind
Don't have a Twitter account? You can still follow Krafters Korner on
Twitter. Go to: Twitter.com/craftingblind
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
NFB-Krafters-Korner:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org/carcione%40
access.net