Not only did I get to the knitting & crochet group this evening (yay!), I taught three kids to spool knit today, with one of them adding in beads already! I’ve shown them someone else’s striped project, and told them about other types of colour use, and they all went home with their spools and should be showing me how far they’ve got tomorrow or Friday. (They also asked me about other things that can be done with the crochet hooks they were lifting their loops with, and more kids asked about crafty skills too.)
Basically, one began looking at the Klutz Spool Knitting kit that was lying around, and I said I’d teach her, on the spool from the kit, and her friend asked to learn too, so I took off the elastic band project I began a few weeks ago so I could give her the spool I’d made then. And five or ten minutes after the third girl came in and asked to learn too, so she unwound some address labels from their cardboard tube, and then came back an hour or two later, after I’d made another spool for her.
I took some pictures as I went, so I could show you how I make these spools, which come out much stronger than any others I’ve made. Besides the tube, one needs about six large paperclips, which can be bent by hand against the table.
I use normal sticky tape to get the hooks in place.
And then cloth tape (for repairing books) to actually hold the paperclips in place.
Wind the cloth tape tightly around the clips and the tube. This makes for a good strong spool, as can be seen from my elastic band project (which did pull hard) that I took off the first of these spools I made. (The elastic cylinder is just about big enough to get my finger into.)
Beyond that fun, my Perkins Brailler arrived today, although I didn’t get to really look at it (hopefully I will tomorrow) and won’t get to show it to you, or even play with it much, until I can bring it home next week. I’m up to lesson 13 of the RNIB Braille Primer, working on graph paper, so hopefully I’ll be able to pick up the use of the machine quickly and keep progressing.
Plus two more books read. This has been a pretty good day!
122. Modern Peacemakers: Aung San Suu Kyi: Activist for Democracy in Myanmar by Judy L. Hasday
The current discussions of Burma (because of the trouble getting aid from outside into the country, let alone to the actual victims of the cyclone) inspired me to finally actually read this, and I’m glad I did, as I learned a lot about the Lady, as she is called in some chapters of this book, and the country she is from. I had known that Burma/Myanmar is a very (self-)isolated and brutal dictatorship, and that Aung San Suu Kyi, as leader of the opposition movement seeking democratic government in the country, has spent many years under house arrest, but I didn’t really know any more than that, so I was glad to learn more.
This series is about the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, and gives lots of background about both the person and the situation they work(ed) in, and I’ve found all of them that I’ve read quite enthralling.
123. 100 Things You Should Know About Penguins by Camilla de la Bedoyere
I’ll get over all these series sometime soon, but they are very useful, and in many cases informative and interesting too. This looks to be a good one, with clear and cohesive numbered paragraphs that can be read either in order or at random. There is general information about penguins, but also plenty of space given to the varieties of them. I hadn’t realised there were quite so many, myself.
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