Sunday, November 20, 2016

Netflix and Crafting

Those blog posts you see about how Netflix is bad for your reading time? All true. All very, very true. We signed up for Netflix this past month - it was cheaper than buying the seasons of all the Star Trek shows - initially mostly for my husband. I did have hopes though that they might have Outlander - my current favorite T.V. show. No luck. That, among a number of other shows and movies I'd like to see are not a part of the Canadian version of Netflix currently. Didn't think I'd be using it that much... Most of the shows I watch I own on DVD or Blu-ray already.

Then I started to go looking. They had the David Attenborough shows, even the ones I hadn't bought yet - though not the one about the Great Barrier Reef - for which I've only seen the final episode unfortunately. Downton Abbey. I've wanted to watch that one. And then I discovered The Crown. Firmly down the rabbit hole now, and my "to watch" list is growing. Mostly historical drama series and animal shows.

Add to this that I've gotten back into crochet again after about a month of doing next to none. And the project of the day is the beaded shawl I've been working on for the last three or so years. The one I tend to refer to as "what the heck was I thinking" especially when I get to a beaded row.  I have to admit however, that I know exactly why I've picked up this project again. It's thanks to the Knitters Pride blocking mats I just bought. I want to have a project finished so I can try them out. I'm making some pretty good progress too - about four rows in the last week. I really do need to get some photographs taken to show it off.

Up until now I've been using some of the bigger foam mats bought at Canadian Tire. They've worked well enough, but they're no fun to store. I think that right now, a couple of them are behind the basement sofa, one is in the furnace room and the final is hiding in the closet under the stairs. All of them though, are collecting dust, and are highly awkward to stash away.

These new mats are smaller, and come in a neat carrying case - they're always going to be nice and clean and ready to use. No "where is the final mat hiding this time" issues to deal with any more. I do wonder though if the Knitters Pride mats will interlock with my older mats should I need to expand the area for a larger project. Any other knitters/crocheters have the answer?

My final snark of the day on crafting concerns crochet hooks - and I'm not referring to the tiniest ones that got bent trying to open up an old family filing cabinet that was missing its' key (attempt failed by the way). No, those are still on my "to replace" list and the attempt can be filed under "unusual ways of using crochet hooks" of which I have a few stories.

Instead I'm referring to the Addi Comfort Grips crochet hooks I'd been buying a few years ago. I've got something like four or five of them now, and over the last five years, all of the handles have cracked. I'll admit that I've not been overly careful with them - keeping them in traveling project bags for example, but I also don't think I've been all that rough with them either. Still, I most definitely expect better durability for the price I paid for each hook.

I don't think they're worth what I've paid for them, and I'm fully intending to go back to using the Boye metal crochet hooks - which have never had a problem - unless I've been using them for non-crochet purposes like picking a rock out of a truck wheel mechanism. No, my plan as I finish each of the projects that uses one of these hooks is to retire it and take up any new projects with the Boye hooks again. They're nearly as comfortable to use and far less expensive, which is good as I prefer to keep the correct hook with each project I'm working on - thus I can have four or five of the most commonly used sizes.

I'd love to know though what your favorite crochet hooks are - maybe I'll give them a try.

At any rate, all of the above has been quite bad for my reading time - especially since I've now joined my husband in watching two to three episodes of Deep Space Nine in a day - from part way through season 5 and I'm now hooked for the most part. It makes for a good time to do some crocheting. Reading time? What reading time?

I'm still claiming to be reading Drums of Autumn though, and am about a hundred pages farther in than I was last week.

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