Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Hyperbolic Crochet AGAIN

These are the pieces I have made so far.

This one is the largest and has 3 colors.


It started only 20 stitches long.
















This is what I'm working on now. It is a out of all the leftover pieces from all my projects. So it will have lots of colors and lots of ends sticking out.




This Reef Project is getting more fun all the time.







These are a few of the examples of the Crocheted Coral Reef pieces we got to see and handle at the seminar.



Here are some of us working together, sharing our ideas and hints.





More samples, different view




More sharing and visiting.




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More Hyperbolic Crochet

Being so enthusiastic about the Hyperbolic Reef project, I took what I was working on to the family party.

One of my nephews (6th grade) wanted to learn how to make one. So I pulled out one of the hooks I carry all the time and a small ball of yarn. I started to show him how to chain. He soon got bored with that and wanted to start making the rows instead of one long chain. I told him to pull it out (that is so fun, I had to let him do it.), when he got it to the right length, we started to work on turning and he was off.

I had him pick a number and told him to put 2 stitches in that hole. He took off.

At the end of the program, he had finished all the yarn in the little ball and his work looked pretty good. This is what he did.



Here we are working as we watched the program.

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Family Christmas Party

I thought I'd put up a few pictures from my family's Christmas Party.



Singing the traditional song to end the evening. " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas."



I could only get part of the crowd at once. If you multipy the people in this by five, you will get a number that almost equals how many people we had there.



Daughter playing her flute for the program.



Everyone milling around as we are eating.



Singing an original song to the newest law enforcement official.


One family playing the "bell" pipes. It sounded really good.


Our 2 visitors from Albania sang a christmas song in their own language. They gave an international flavor to the evening.



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Saturday, December 13, 2008

Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef --Reposting

I have seen pictures of the wonders of scuba diving in places like the Great Barrier Reef and other coral reef areas. They are beautiful. But in reality, there is no way I will be doing any scuba diving; anywhere! My son has had the opportunity to become certified in scuba diving, but that's probably as close as I will get to actually doing it.

One of the reasons that people give for not doing crochet is that they don't know how to make it form the object they desire. Well, I suppose the INSTITUTE FOR FIGURING is taking that to a new level. They have created a CROCHETED display of a coral reef that is FANTASTIC! If I lived close to where it was being displayed, I would go.



It will be in Scottsdale, Arizona from April - July 2009!! And I get to help!!

When you look at the individual items that are in the display, each one will fascinate you! But to know how to put them together in a way that really looks like a part of nature is just astounding. I found myself just looking at the pictures over and over; wanting to touch them and see how they were made. WOW!!

Most people don’t understand that it takes math to create a pattern in yarn; crocheting or knitting! You need to be able to understand how many stitches it take to create the pattern and then decide how many times to repeat that pattern and how many stitches you need to add in order to work the first row as you create the stitch.

For instance, a pattern may say something like this; 3+2 (or) 12+3. You need to know what that means and how to use that information. Now I can tell people that I do higher math when I spend so much time on my crochet.

  • Yarn is just my paper for doing calculations.
  • I need more hooks so I never run out of “pencil leads”.
  • Buying crochet magazines is just finding new calculations to practice.
  • Crochet books are just my sources for answering questions and learning new stitches to work my calculations.
  • The time I spend sitting and crocheting is just expanding my brainpower in mathematics.

I suppose there is a valid argument here for putting mathematical crochet in school curriculum! They already have orchestra and band – which both use math; and drama – which only uses math for creating the sets. So why not have a math/crochet class? They could make things for charity. Even better it could be used for helping the angry students learn to relax. Since it has been proven to help relieve stress, why not use it for those kids who are the difficult ones?

What about putting crochet into business? It could be a team builder. It could help to lessen the stress-related problems for almost all types of businesses. If your employees are going to take time to goof off, let crochet be an acceptable way to kick back for 30 minutes. I could continue to bore everyone that doesn’t crochet with all the ways it could be put into everyone’s life . . . but I won’t.

Just know that I will be happy to help anyone learn to crochet and if you stick with it, you will find that you have less stress in your life! That is worth working for!

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Saturday, December 6, 2008

Just more fun stuff

A 2 year old must keep up with the big kids!
S: "Don't take my picture now. I haven't even showered."
Me: "I won't share it with anyone."
OOPS!!
Just tell them it wasn't focused right.
(Is this size better, S?)

"Dad, Look what I can do!"
If you help me remember how to do it.


Proof !!
I got to see all 4 of them.


Don't mess with this lady!
You will loose!
My sweet daughter, and one of her little friends!

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Your Kind of Music

On this last trip, my son introduced me to the best radio in the world!

It plays only the kind of music I like and it there are no commercials.

No messing with CD's to find that one song on an album that I want to hear.

I can listen to different types of music on separate channels or mix the channels together.

Impossible? Possible!!!

Look at http://pandora.com and you can set up your own new kind of listening experience.

It is FREE.

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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

I am ecstatic!

The Hyperbolic Coral Reef project is coming to Scottsdale! I posted about this on Thursday, June 5, 2008. It looks fantastic!!

I told TK that I would love to be able to see it, but I wasn’t going to travel for it. Now it is coming to me! And even better is the fact that they are asking for help with it. I am definitely in that line.

These websites provides information about the project:
http://www.theiff.org/reef/index.html
http://www.scottsdalepublicart.org/CrochetReef.php

Here are a few of the latest nests. Many have found their way to other homes for many varied uses.


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Monday, December 1, 2008

Pictures from my trip

These are randomly selected pictures from my trip. I will write about it later.


J is one of my favorite people in the world.
Life is tough for him & his family right now.


Cousins playing & watching TV .
Actually they are just making a mess.


More of the cousins.
The ONE GIRL with the 15 boys that were there.


Serving dinner to the 15 boys, one girl, & 7 adults.
This kitchen is great for that.


Do I look like "Micheal Jordon"? They say I do.

Conversation overheard this same night between two brothers, age 12 & 10, who were watching "Three Amigos!"

After hearing the word 'foreplay' in the movie.
S: What's foreplay?
Me: I'm not sure. Ask your parents.
S continues to ask me what it means. He finally gives up and asks his brother.
S: T what does foreplay mean?
T: Oh, that's when they get on their horses. (referring to the movie)
S: Okay.
I hid my smile and actually did not laugh at their innocence. But it was a close one for me.

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