The best part of getting creative is yarn shopping. I have now renamed Jo-Ann’s to Evil-Jo’s. Jo is evil and makes me drop $100 it seems every time I walk into her store. Kind of like that $50 gallon of milk we all have gone out for on occasion. Well, the issue is when I get home from Evil-Jo’s my husband can’t quite see the function of 10 skeins of yarn like he can milk for his cereal. KWIM???
The worst part of getting started (besides explaining my purchases) is literally getting started. I am going to verbally show you how I have learned to get that dang yarn on my hook without fail every time. I have spent plenty of time “reading” the directions. Heck, I have even “listened” to verbal directions, but until you can VISUALIZE it, well at least for me, it doesn’t happen. So here is my never fail method of connect the two parts together that are necessary to begin the beautiful flow of crocheting.
Okay, so technically before you attach the hook and yarn together, you need to take a moment and make sure you have the right yarn for the right hook. Again, I don’t play by the rules. I make them up as I go. If you want to follow the pattern then by all means keep those small paper sleeves with all that information on them to confirm what size hook goes with your yarn or grab a gauge to help you out. However, if you are more like me the paper comes off the moment I get home so I can VISUALIZE all the possibilities! So at this point I wing it. As long as I am not taking the thickest yarn I can find and expecting to make miracles with a size F hook, I typically can trust my gut instinct I will be ok. Generally I pick a hook that looks like it could dance nicely with my yarn, much like how we may pick our own partner on the dance floor.
Back to my story: Let’s get the yarn ready to meet the hook. Here is my fool-proof way of getting that slip knot perfect every time. Let me help you by visualizing in words how this goes. First, let’s get your yarn out. It is always easier in the long-haul of a project to find the end piece buried in the center of the skein. Unfortunately that is not always packaged so nicely to find or see. If it isn’t, just grab the end on the outside of the skein and move on. Worst your yarn will do is roll around on the floor.
What you want to do is create a lower case e out of the end of your yarn with the piece running back to the skein to lie on top of the short end. Got that? The intersection of the top of the e, the loop you created, has one piece on the top of another. It is important that the top piece is ALWAYS running back to the skein. Now pick up the intersecting point with your pinching fingers and look through the loop like you are looking through a Christmas Wreath. You still should have the intersection top (you know the one running back to the skein) closest to your eyeball J Now with your other hand go through the center of the loop and grab the yarn running back to the skein. You want to pull this through the loop back towards you. From here go ahead and tighten down the slip knot by pulling on the short and long end of the yarn as you need to get your started. TA DA! You now have a slip knot and now understand how visually to do it. Much easier than stagnant drawings isn’t it??
Tomorrow let’s chat about chains. They tend to abbreviate them. By tomorrow to humor you I will look up what that acronym is for your benefit.
