Introductions! Class starts May 6
Well hello everybody, glad you're here. Week one we're not touching a pattern yet, just chain stitch and single crochet until your hands stop fighting you, probably with some ugly acrylic on purpose so nobody's precious about it. Go ahead and introduce yourself below, tell me your name and why you signed up. Bored hands, gift for a grandbaby, therapist told you to, I've heard it all and none of it scares me. See you May 6th.
Margie Olsen here!
Cathy Draper here, Art Dye 4th Ward. Been in the house since 2021, retired, and I'll say straight out - if this class involves food preservation of any kind and somebody tells me to water bath can something that needs a pressure canner, I will have opinions about it. Loudly! Botulism doesn't care about your feelings.
I quilt, I bake, I research family history when the mood strikes! Not much for chit chat but I show up and I do the work right or I don't do it! If that's not the vibe here somebody tell me now I can plan accordingly. 🙏 Matt
Well, Cathy, I'll push back on you just a little bit 😊 I've been canning since before some of these young onse were born, and I have watered bath tomatoes and salsa and pickles for YEARS with no trouble at all I don't think it's quite as black and white as "somebody will get botulism." It really does depend on the recipe and the acidity level, and a lot of the old family recipes I use have been tested plenty over the decades! Now, meats and low acid vegetables, sure, that's pressure canner territory, no argument there. But I'd hate for someone new to canning to read your post and think they can never water bath ANYTHING or they're taking their life in their hands. That's not been my experience at all, and I've fed a lot of people over a lot of years!
Vickie Bailey, Ridgeline 4th
kellie peterson, downtown 4th. i'm not really a canning person so i'll stay out of the acid/pH debate lol... but i will say i've read enough recipe threads to konw that "i've done it for years with no trouble" is exactly what people say right before the one time it goes wrong. doesn't mean vickie's wrong about her tomatoes means the tested-recipe part mtaters more than the years-of-experience part. those aren't the same thing.
anyway. i knit, i cook, i work full time so my energy for committee stuff is kinda limited... show up, do my part, not much for the gorup chat chit chat either honestly. we'll see how this class goes 😅 Good luck!
Kellie's got the actual point even if she doesn't want the credit for it - tested recipe vs... years of experience aren't the same claim and it matters. Vickie, im not saying you're tomatoes are gonna hurt anybody, acid's acid and yours might be plenty low pH. But "family recipe, decades, no trouble" is not a measurement, its a streak! USDA didn't update their guidelines for fun, they did it because tomatoes got LESS acidic over the years from breeding for sweetness. So a recipe from you're grandma's era might not test the same today even using her exact steps!
I'll can what's tested and pressure what's not tested, and I sleep fine! Not trying to start round two, just - if somebody new is reading this thread trying to figure out who to believe, "it's always worked" and
A granddaughter deadline is definitely real motivation, august is not far off 🙈 I'm Sarah, Sarah Wolf... mostly signed up because my hands need something to do, lol, gets a little restless sitting around. Anyway, see you the 6th
Carly Johnson here.
Kellie Peterson here, also bored hands lol!
August will come faster than you think, but eight weeks is plenty of time to go from trapezoid-scarf-level to a blanket you're not embarrassed by. Mine came out shaped like a mistake my first try and I wore it anyway!
Sarah, bored hands is the best reason there is, I've built a whole life on it!
Marilyn, that trapezoid scarf story made me laugh out loud, lol.
April Sorensen here..... signed up mostly cuz I finish quilts so fast I figured I needed something to slow me down for once lol. Sarah, that trapezoid scarf comment got me too, definitely gonna happen to me as well.
Bringing ugly acrylic like Marilyn said, not gonna be precious about it for sure. See everyone at orientation, I'll be the one with a grocery bag full of leftover yarn 😂
Funny you say that, quilters usually make my best students, you already know how to follow a rule even when you don't want to!! Sarah, bring the competitive spirit, just aim it at the yarn, not the lady next to you.
Marilyn, a mistake you wore anyway is basically my whole wardrobe philosophy already lol... and april, same here I can follow a recipe or a pattern fine, it's the "just wing it" projects thta get me every time. bringing my ugly acrylic yarn and low expectations, that's about all I got going into this one!
So anyway, Kellie, "low expectations" is the way to go into any new craft!! 😊 I'm self taught, continental crochet, from ages ago... decades really, and here I am STILL learning things that week one covers, lol!! It's a process for sure!! Anyway, welcome, we'll all figure it out together I'm sure
vickie decades of continental and still learning week one, bless.
This made me smile so much.
Yes!! That's it exactly, my hands "know" continental but nobody ever fixed my tension, so... here's hoping Marilyn can fix thirty yeasr of bad habits lol 😊 Sooo excited. See you all in class!!
Vickie, thirty years of bad habits is nothing, I've been unlearning things since the Clinton administration! Tension is fixable, it's just muscle memory arguing with you. Bring your continental hooks Wednesday and I'll take a look, no promises I won't just tell you it's fine and move on. Kellie, Lisa, same goes for you two!
So week 2 update from the bored hands department, theyre officially busy hands now lol. the closet pile hasnt grown either, which is a win for sure wasnt expecting that this fast :(
"unfinished proof" made me laugh sooo much, bless your heart!
Hi everyone!
kellie lol give cathy some grace, i'm on week 3 and still counting my stitches out loud like a crazy person, my husband probably thinks i've lost it
That's fair teasing but Cathy's right on schedule, week two is when the yarn still feels like it's got a mind of its own. Jamie counting out loud in week three is normal too, I still do it on lace stitches. Nobody's behind here.