Let’s resume the Crochet Corner story.
When we left off last week N* was in a small fix, in the midst of making a booty with a questionable number of stitches. Once home, I crocheted my own pair of cuties as a way to double-check the pattern, Booty Socks by Myshelle Cole.
* – I’m going to refer to all CC ladies by first initial only from now on. Luckily, I’ve only met one lady per letter so far. –
I found no errors in the pattern, none!
Hmm. I remember thinking we had way too many stitches, more than in the pattern photos. whispered. . . I think N may have thrown in an extra increase round when I wasn’t looking.
DH helped me to simplify the pattern by changing it from multi-sized to a newborn-only version and then we enlarged the font to
14 point,
making it easier for aged eyes to read. I felt well prepared to help get N get her poor little booty back on track! But she did not attend.
Turns out most of my ladies went to a musical show taking place upstairs. By chance I saw M in the hall; only after I’d first complimented her freshly permed hair did I invite her to join me in the Crochet Corner.
M both knits and crochets; she said she already had a project ‘on the hook’ so the aide passed the wheelchair’s grips off to me and we headed toward to her room. I really enjoyed chatting with M, both as cruised the hall – She protesting all the way that she was making too much work for me, lol. – and as we each worked on our own crochet projects. I weaved in ends on a bulky-weight ripple while she unraveled a scarf-gone-wrong that she’d started crocheting lengthwise. I hope she remembers to use a hook one size larger for the starting chain of her next lengthwise scarf, like we discussed; that will prevent the kind of severe curvature that this one had.
To answer another of the questions I posed at the end of last week’s Crochet Corner segment – Yes, someone did remind all the other ladies that I was coming.
H sent me the message that knitting takes an awful lot of concentration and she simply wasn’t in the mood.
Two others stopped by, one lady just long enough to say that she’d unraveled everything she’d done on her dishcloth because of mistakes, but she assured me that she would start over. . . some other day. The other lady may have come as much for the Rec Room’s coffee as for crochet. lol. She arrived just as I was packing up but I stuck around long enough to see that the even larger hook I’d brought for her to try, a size Q, did seem to make crocheting a little easier for her.
In conclusion, I’m satisfied to have at least kept in touch with four out of the six crafty women that I’ve met so far. I must remember that these visits are all about process, not product, my only goal to help them find enjoyment through playing with yarn.
P.S. One of the receptionists wants to get together so I can help her ‘remember how to knit’. And an ‘aide’?, – I’m not sure of various people’s titles yet. – who I briefly spoke with last week, popped in a couple of times. First to check out the pair of booties that I’d set out on the table (see photo above) and later to tell me she’s about to start her first crocheted garment, a little girl’s dress. I’ll be around again next week to offer moral support.
alottastitches 
Great that the staff want to refresh their skills. Then they can help the elder ladies with their projects so they aren’t embarrassed to return to the weekly group with no progress. Perhaps you can express a vocal dismay and rip back a project you are working on at some point each week, so they remember it’s OK to make mistakes. Keep having fun with just enjoying the time with the ladies or just one.
Just ‘playing with yarn.’ Yep, just looking at it and holding it can be enough some days.
I tell them, “No pressure, you knit/crochet when You feel like it.” 🙂
Hearing that D had ripped out all of her hard work certainly got me to “express vocal dismay”! – lol – I’d have much preferred she let me show her how to fix the mistake – Can’t imagine that would have been difficult as she’s doing plain garter stitch. – or that she learn to live with a small error. After all, this is her first knitting project in X number of years, so can’t expect that it’s going to be perfect and dishes will wash just as well with an inexact cloth.
Oh, do they have upholstered chairs in their rooms that they might like to make chair sets? Ones that need only be rectangles? Just a thought.
I recently made a white set for my chair with worsted weight cotton yarn. Very nice.
You mean like antimacassars?
I didn’t notice the type of furniture in M’s room, but I don’t think a chair set would be much appreciated by housekeeping staff.