Fruit From My Hands

On the fourth day of my sewing challenge, I took advantage of the free video workshops offered by Craftsy in honor of Labor Day. I previewed the class offerings on the night before and then opened my Chromebook with a plan of attack early Monday morning.

I learned to knit in the Portuguese style with Andrea Wong. It never hurts to have a new knitting style in my repertoire considering my arthritis gets more painful every day.  I learned from the video workshop that Portuguese knitting requires the least amount of physical movement making it very appropriate for arthritic knitters. The little need for hand and arm movement enables the fastest knitting speeds available. Who knew?

I learned advanced alterations with Alison Wolf. (I’ve already purchased and studied her beginning course.) She is an excellent teacher. I would love an in-person workshop with her.  Attention clients: I learned how to fix a jeans zipper so if I can find some jeans zippers locally, bring on your favorite damaged jeans!

For the afternoon, I settled in my recliner to learn all I could about zipper bags from Joan Hawley. Sewing bags is a subject I’m familiar with but it never hurts to learn a little more.  Ms. Hawley’s manner of teaching is so calm and reassuring that I’m pretty sure she could walk me through performing brain surgery without either of us becoming nervous. Her Sweetpea Pods have always intrigued me and this workshop guided my through step-by-step construction of Pods as well as another interesting zipper bag. I jotted down notes and quickly made my own pair of Pea Pods by bedtime.

This I learned:  I am never too old to learn something new.