Knitting

A great tragedy struck one of the nine scarves I made for my entire family one Christmas a few years ago. Namely…it was washed and it happened to be one of the 2 I made of slightly more expensive yawn. This one, in fact, had a large percentage of wool in it. Yep, it was felted. See:

So I am once again knitting a Harry Potter scarf. Mostly I knit on the bus…this I find is a great way to get strangers to strike up conversations with you. Especially since I knit continental-style and very fast. My Great-Aunt Thelma taught me to knit that way and it’s actually a very expedient way to knit. American style requires a person to drop the right needle to wrap the string for every stitch. I don’t think I’d have the patience to knit if I had to do it that way. I put together a demo of my style for this blog:

Continental knitting, German knitting, European knitting, or left-hand knitting @ Yahoo! Video

The source of my pattern for the Harry Potter scarf is:
Free Pattern for HP scarves
Try it.

The Art of Paper Folding

I have always been a fan of Origami ever since I was in middle school and my parents took me to meet a Japanese exchange student. The only thing I remember about her was that she taught us how to make a crane. I was really excited by it so that same year when my parents left us with our Great Aunt Thelma to go to Ashland and watch Shakespeare, they got me a book about Origami as my souvenir. I love that book…I still have it.
These days I’m into making Origami decorations. I like to make Origami quilts:

Also, when I started making lucet and kumihimo demos for Dad’s website and I got bit by the video-making bug, I made a series of how-to videos for some of my favorite Origami folding projects.
The Crane:

Folding an Origami Crane @ Yahoo! Video

The Frog:

Origami Frog @ Yahoo! Video

The Peacock:

Origami Peacock @ Yahoo! Video

The Fish:

Origami Fish @ Yahoo! Video

The Ninja Star:

Traditional Origami Ninja Star @ Yahoo! Video

The 4-Petal Flower:

Origami Ninja Star @ Yahoo! Video