Read-Along for December 2

John 1:29-50

John Testifies About Jesus

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”[f]

John’s Disciples Follow Jesus

35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter[g]).

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

50 Jesus said, “You believe[h] because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you,[i] you[j] will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’[k] the Son of Man.”

Baby Hats for Heart Association - Pattern Included

I haven't blogged much lately.  I had several seminars in a row, then a vacation, and then a rush at work.  However, I've been knitting some red baby hats for the American Heart Association.  Here's a link with information about their baby hat project:

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Affiliate/Little-Hats-Big-Hearts_UCM_487734_SubHomePage.jsp#

For the American Heart Association, your hats need to be mostly red. 






I've been playing around with different patterns, just making them red.  For my standard gauge machine, I found that I have several pound cones of red cone yarn that I even didn't realize I had!  I don't knit with red much, and I'm enjoying working with this bright, cheerful color for a change.

There's a couple of the cloche hats sized down for baby, two Brioche hats (my favorite has a Brioche stitch flared brim), some ribbed hats, and then there's a pile of the basic hat that aren't sewed up yet.  I was putting some fair isle right after the ribbing.

I figured I better get a basic hat pattern put together so I could share it, even as I fool around with the other ideas.  It needed to be a hat that would work on almost any machine, ribber not required.  My hat has standard, mid-gauge, and bulky instructions and preemie, baby, and toddler sizes.  Here's a photo of that basic hat.  The one in the photo is standard gauge.  I used ribbing, but you can use mock rib or any hem.

This plain pattern doesn't have to be boring.  In fact, I hope you will decorate your hats and really make those mommas smile!  By knitting for people, we give a human, personal touch, and I love to come up with something nicer than the average spit-it-out speed project.  Make your baby hats safe by avoiding loose strings, holes, and anything that could become a choking hazard. 

The Little Hats Big Hearts campaign at the AHA is asking us to make hats that are red or mainly red.  You can certainly dress them up a bit.

I am sharing this pattern for any charity baby hats you'd like to knit.  There are quite a few organizations that always need baby hats - childrens' homes, clothing closets and drives, pregnancy assistance charities, and hospitals. 

Now for a contest - embellish your hats and email me photos!  There's an envelope icon on the left hand side of this page that you can use to send emails.

I'll pick favorite hats, with your permission, post the photos here, and send a surprise to the winners.

December Bible Read-Along

This December, I am reading through the book of John.  We're all madly busy during the holidays, but these are brief passages and wonderful reminders of the meaning of Christmas.

Come along with me, if you like!

John 1:1-28

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

John the Baptist Denies Being the Messiah

19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders[c] in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”[d]

24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26 “I baptize with[e] water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Help Me With Translating and Captioning Videos

I'm probably slow on the uptake, but I just realized that YouTube has a feature where video viewers can voluntarily help out by adding captions and translations to my videos.

In the never-ending quest to teach people machine knitting and make this hobby more fun and productive as well, I've been painfully aware of had badly my videos need captioning (for the hearing-impaired and for the rest of us, as well, who need to see exactly what was said) as well as translations in other languages.  I have captioned some videos, simplifying what I said to make the captions more readable (I do chatter on), but there are plenty of videos that are not captioned. 

YouTube has a tool to caption videos but it doesn't understand the knitting jargon.  You get truly weird captions.  They can be funny, but they aren't very useful when you're trying to follow the instructions.

I have lots of requests for translations, especially into Spanish, German, French and Italian.  I put emails in other languages into Google Translate and I see, once again, that someone needs this video in another language.  I don't know their language, and I don't trust online translation tools to get the things into another language properly.  It's that knitting jargon problem again.  In many languages, where we say "knit" and "purl," they say "right" and "left."  We say "stitch," but they might say "point."  We say "row," but they might say "career"... 

What I do know is that machine and hand knitters are incredibly generous about helping each other.  I know that if someone makes a mess of a translation, another person can fix it, or another person can bring it to my attention. 

Want to help?  If you really want to jump-start some underserved knitters, would you be willing to translate or caption a favorite video or two?  One that helped you, or perhaps one in the beginner series?

New Video - Backstitch Ribbing Bind-Off

Wow!  I've taught five seminars this year, all wonderful, and took two other personal trips besides.  I'm not teaching again in 2017, am home from San Diego, and determined to get organized.

John and I met absolutely wonderful people at the 2017 seminars, were spoiled rotten by our amazing hostesses (and hosts, can't leave the guys out), and I certainly hope the folks who had us come have some small understanding of how grateful I am and how much I appreciate them.  The knitters were so awesome - everywhere I went, I picked up more ideas and inspiration. 

I realized I didn't have a November video up yet, so I just put up the first of several ribbing bind-offs.  Of course, I'm a big fan of the "smiles and frowns" ribber bind off, which I teach quite often and is already at YouTube, here:

https://youtu.be/UV7njg7tKFE

For today's new video, I found this very unusual ribbing bind-off in a old, yellowed knitting magazine's instructions.  What kind of nut reads abbreviated, fine-print knitting instructions for fun?  I'm that kind.  I find great ideas in old magazines and scribbled in messy old notebooks.

This is an interesting technique because it's very stretchy, and it just looks unusual, with its purl-ish bumps all around.  I found it quite easy to do and to sew evenly.

New Video: Mitered Neckband

I have a new book out, "Mid-Gauge Mastery," which has thirteen patterns for sport and DK weight yarn for your LK-150 or other mid-gauge machine.  It comes with two DVDs that have 5 hours of video instruction.  The book is available over at www.dianaknits.com.

One of the things many knitters find difficult and tedious is making a good-looking V neckband.  Here's one from my new book, "Mid-Gauge Mastery," that is hemmed - no ribber - and looks just wonderful.  This, I believe, is a good, clear explanation of how to do this.  I achieve a crisp center V by decreasing onto the center stitch every other row three times, putting in a looser turning row, and increasing on each side of that center stitch every two rows three times.

One secret to this - don't move all the neckband stitches in and out for the decreases or increases.  Do the work at the center front first, then move it over and move the stitches on just one side of the neck.  With this baby sweater, you can do this with just a triple transfer tool, but if you want to speed up the job, use a 7-stitch tool or a garter bar. 

September's Video: Scrubbie

This might be the easiest, fastest project I've ever put up as a video:  A quick little kitchen scrubbie to knit.  This is using Red Heart Scrubby Sparkle yarn.

Note:  Don't use the regular Scrubby yarn.  Scrubby Sparkle runs smoothly through LK150, Studio 860, and Brother 350 machines as well as bulky knitting machines.  I've even gotten it through a standard gauge machine on every other needle, just keeping a close eye on it.  I haven't tried the regular Scrubby myself, but it looks much too lumpy for our machines. 

This pattern is for the mid-gauge machine, but you can also make it over the same number of stitches and a medium tension on your bulky machine.

This is a little kick-back, no worries project.  Once you're worked this through once, you can probably make one faster than you can watch the video, and when you sew it up, you don't need to worry about perfect seams because the eyelash yarn covers any irregularities.  To These make cute little gifts for Secret Santa or "just because."



I ended the video with a brief overview of the mid-gauge book, which is the book that contains the scrubbie. 

New Book & DVDs Available - Mid-Gauge Mastery

I recently finished my new book & DVD set, Mid-Gauge Mastery:  Fun Projects for Any Mid-Gauge Knitting Machine.   The set consists of a 33-page book and two DVDs.

This one took me quite a long time, because it was a large project.  It actually has 13 different projects, and the edited video lessons (detailed instructions on how to make the items) are over five hours long and took two DVDs.

Rather like The Goldilocks Challenge, this is a progressive project book.  That is, if you're looking for materials to teach a friend to knit, or you're wanting to learn to knit and actually get some nice knits made, this book starts with very easy projects and then moves up to more challenging and more interesting items.  I think that even experienced knitters will find some new ideas here!

The book starts with three afghans - a baby blanket with three panels, with a "worm join" and a "worm edge."  Did you know you can use the worm for a join?  Next, there's a fancier baby blanket with strings of hearts joining and edging the panels.  The third afghan is a great stash-buster, gift or charity project - it uses several thin, industrial cone yarns and a plying technique to quickly make a giant, "man-sized" afghan.  The panels are joined using a beautiful sew-as-you-go cable join, and then the blanket is edged with a cable edging.

I put in a fast kitchen scrubbie made from Red Heart Scrubby yarn.  I like this sparkly, colorful stuff, and I've found that if I give these away, people ask for more of them.  You won't believe how quickly these make up, in just a very few minutes.

The Diagonal Mid-Gauge Scarf is a warm, doubled scarf made with an easy but very interesting bias technique.  With this little project, I teach seaming and grafting.  I made mine with a beautiful self-striping alpaca-blend yarn, which results in bias striping patterns without any extra ends to hide. My friend zipped over to the store and tried out two of the other color ways of that same yarn, and we loved them all.


I have a big triangle shawl with a hand-tooled lace edge.  I start from the skinny points and work to the wide area, then do a graft.  This results in a terrific mitered lace for the bottom corner.  Here's a closeup of that corner.

My baby set consists of a raglan pullover, baby pants, and a hat.  These are great fun to make, and I admit that I lost count of how many raglan pullovers I made before I realized I was through testing and simply holding up publication.  The little pullovers are fast to make, and cover most of the techniques you need for basic sweater making.  I have three neckline options - a lapped neckline, a mitered neckline, and a scalloped collar neckline to go with the girly baby pants.  My girlie baby set uses scalloped hems in pink and was one of my favorite finished items.






The ear flap hat has child-to-adult sizes.  I was hoping this would be an outstanding charity hat because it has the extra warm, doubled, short-rowed ear flaps.  I did the shaped top of the hat two ways - the garter bar method for perfectionists and a quicker, needles out of work shortcut method.

The baby kitty hat is the earflap hat with kitten ears and an embroidered face.  This was another addictive little project; I just kept making and making them.  Cute kid, huh?  It's a baby doll.

There's a mitten, too, in seven sizes, with a shaped palm and a very comfortable thumb easily attached with more sew-as-you-go tricks.  Just for fun, you can make the Felted Oven Mitt by knitting a big size loosely with a feltable wool and felt it down in your washing machine to the fit and thickness you want. 


The most advanced project in the book is a sew-as-you-go sock - yes, a sock on your mid-gauge!  I have had so many requests from readers for a mid-gauge sock, and I had been concerned about getting a successful sock even though the mid-gauge can't make tiny stitches.  This is a nice sock if you're looking for a thicker sock.  Ordinary sock yarn is going to be a bit too thin; you'll need the heavier kind.  

This pattern is available at www.dianaknits.com.

Surprise! There are openings at the Grand Rapids Area Machine Knitting Seminar!

I just heard from Vicki at Grand Rapids, and they have some open spaces for the seminar this coming weekend.  This is sort notice, but a great opportunity to attend a machine knitting seminar and make a bunch of knitting friends.

I'm teaching Friday and Saturday, Sept. 8th and 9th, and am very excited about teaching at this one.  It's a little smaller group, and I'll be able to cover more and get to know people more.  I worked with the club to choose this schedule of classes:

• A thorough garter bar class - this is not your ordinary garter bar class.  I teach how to do some unusual, very cool things with it.
• A lace clinic, which will include my automatic scalloped lace, along with a number of other interesting techniques, like slant lace and mirror lace.
• A bunch of cheaters and tricks, like setting in a sleeve as you knit it, the "practically perfect gauge swatch," Knit Leader tips, all kinds of interesting edges and joins. 
• I'm also doing a ribber workshop.  I don't get to do these very often, but with this smaller group, I've got some fun ribber items planned.
• I've got a 28-page, coil bound handout book which has a big pile of bonus materials this time - Kitty Hat, Heart Pillow, The popular foldover edge tuck baby blanket, Squared Away Entrelac, Scrubbie, and Diagonal Mid-Gauge Scarf.  I'll teach as many of these as time allows, but if I don't get to all the goodies, they're in the book.

Attend just one day for $40, or attend both days for $75.  Here's the club information - do consider calling them and registering to go!

Please contact vnoorthoek@comcast.net and let her know which or both days you plan to attend, and you can pay the club's seminar fee when you arrive.

 

Workshop Location:

First Reformed Church of Byron Center     

8425 Byron Center Avenue; Byron Center, MI 49315

This is a ground level space that provides easy access for everyone.

Including lunch made by Sara!

Here are are the details Vicki will need when you contact her: 

1. Whether you're attending September 8 ($40), September 9 ($40), of both days ($75).  Friday the 8th will run from 8:30-4, and Saturday the 9th, 8:30-3.
2. Do you have a special diet?  If so, explain what you need.

If you need a hotel, Vicki suggests the Comfort Suites South, 7644 Caterpillar Court; Grand Rapids, MI 49548, (616) 301-2255 (make reservation by phone).
Are you in the area and not connected with a knitting club?  Consider the Grand Rapids Area Machine Knitters.  They meet the second Wednesday of every month at 1 p.m. at the Kentwood Senior Center, 355 48th Street, Grand Rapids, MI.  Marcia Zysltra is the contact for meetings, and can be emailed at zylstram@att.net. 

Quick Update

Hey, friends, my little family are just fine.  We're in North Austin, and we had several rainy days and wind, a few downed trees, but no problems.  We're about 200 miles from the really big trouble.  It was really strange to have blue sky and puffy little clouds here while it continued to pour and pour on eastern Texas.

I didn't actually realize right away that our out of state friends were concerned about us. It was a busy week, at the office with meetings and deadlines, some evening meetings, and next weekend, I'm teaching in Grand Rapids.  I know it's going to be an incredibly fun seminar.  They've already been wonderful as we have been setting up the seminar.

Houston is an enormous, growing city of over 2 million people, not even counting the many surrounding cities that are related economically many of which were devastated by the flooding.  The Houston area produces the lion's share of the economic growth in Texas, is filled with corporate headquarters and universities.  I can hardly fathom what it will take to rebuild, or the number of people affected, but I have great faith that we will see an incredible recovery.

I am not from Texas, but I've lived here since 1994, and you fall in love with the people here.  They are friendly, funny, generous, down-to-earth, hard-working, and loving.  I have a whole storehouse of personal memories of kindnesses Texans have done for our family over these years.  Some of them were small, like shop owners giving my boys a treat and refusing payment, and some were big, like the farmer who towed my son's car for hours from the countryside to a small town where he could get a transmission replaced.  Gosh, a gas station owner once trusted my college boy to pay for a tank of gas so he could get home, even refusing to phone us for a credit card number!  I'm always noticing Texans helping out frazzled parents or elderly folks without giving it a thought.  The friendliness and the politeness of the Texas culture makes every day more pleasant. 

Lots of people have traveled to the coast to help.  God bless everyone who has dropped his or her own life right now to help the afflicted! 

Austin is receiving many flood victims.  When Austin received Katrina victims, local people found many creative ways to help the individuals who came. Now our city has this new challenge, so pray for us, folks; not just for those hurt, but also for those of us who need to see how to help and then do it.

Video for August - Dragonfly Stitch

I've hand knitted this, and wanted a machine knit version that was easy to make.  Here it is:

Inspiration at Rhythm of the Needles

Oh, how cute are these monkey-colored socks!

Twelve Step Program for Rehabbing Machines

12-Step Program

For Rehabilitating Old Japanese Knitting Machines

Suppose someone gives you an old knitting machine, or you purchase one at a garage sale or thrift shop.  What should you do?  Here’s a step-by-step list that applies to Japanese machines – Studio, Silver Reed, Juki, Corona, Knitking, and Brother.  Some of this applies to Swiss and German machines, as well, but they are somewhat different. 

I believe you can do these steps without being terribly mechanically inclined – well, because I can do them!  Over the years, I’ve gotten quite a bit of practice fixing up old machines.  My husband, who has great mechanical talents, has encouraged me to help him rehab machines, even very old ones, and the outcome is nearly always a very functional machine, because these babies are built to last!

1.       Determine whether the machine is worth the effort required to repair it.  Generally speaking, if the knitting machine is heavily rusted, if working parts are badly bent, broken or shattered, you might not want to attempt a repair at all.   Don’t throw it away, though – someone will want it for parts.  The good news is that home knitting machines, by and large, were incredibly well built and last a long, long time.

2.       Make sure you have an owner’s manual for that model.  If you don’t, most manuals are available to download at machineknittingetc.com.  Free!  Bless the man who put up and maintains that site!

3.       Next, take a careful inventory and find out if any critical parts are missing.  This is not all that difficult.  Virtually all owner’s manuals I have seen have parts sketches or photos included, and you simply compare the parts to the pictures in the manual and see what might be missing.

4.       If parts are missing, figure out how hard they are to obtain.  If you are missing weights, transfer tools, cast-on combs, upper tension unit, or punch cards, those are relatively easy to get.  If you are missing the carriage, sinker plate, or electronic console, well, it will be a challenge to find and afford those major parts.  You will need to contact dealers, place requests on the machine knitting “for sale” groups, and check eBay.  I have a long history of always finding the parts I need, rather like a Mountie always getting his man, but I keep after it as long as it takes.  You certainly could end up in a situation where you don’t think it’s worth the cost and effort.  Brand new knitting machine replacement parts are quite expensive, and you can expect to pay for shipping.  This might be a good time to do some internet searches and find out what your model is worth.  When was it manufactured?  Does it have the more desirable features that might make it a machine you will want to keep for the long haul?  How much do they fetch on eBay?  How much do dealers charge when they sell them used?   

5.       If you have a complete machine that appears to be in good shape, you are lucky, but you aren’t finished yet.  Virtually every machine that has been stored any length of time needs its sponge bar replaced.  The sponge bar is a metal strip with foam rubber that fits inside the machine on top of the needles.  If your needles are popping up above the bed, you need one.  The sponge bar should hold the needles down against the bed.  The best way to get a sponge bar is to purchase one from a dealer.  You will need to pull the old sponge bar out, measure it, and buy one as close as possible to the one you took out.  In a real pinch, you can put new foam rubber into an old sponge bar, but the new ones do last longer. 

6.       While you’ve got the sponge bar out, remove all the needles.  The manual will have a page or two that explains how to remove and install needles.  They need to be thoroughly cleaned.  We soak our needles in a mixture of denatured alcohol and Hoppes Elite Gun Oil (only buy Elite, which is safe on plastic), and we use the denatured alcohol outdoors only because it gives off fumes.  We make three or four containers with this half and half mixture, using old jars, and put 1/3 of the needles in each container and let them soak a while.

7.       While the needles soak, vacuum the machine to remove fuzz from its innards.  If you have a machine brush, use that on it.  Wipe down the machine thoroughly using a rag with some knitting machine oil (again, I use Hoppes Elite). 

8.       Take the carriage and push every button and pull every lever and make sure they all work.  Turn it over and make sure that when you change a control on the top, something happens on the bottom.  If anything is stuck, penetrating oil will often loosen it up, but you do have to wait for it to work.  I’ll leave a stuck carriage on the kitchen counter, and every time I walk by, I’ll play with the controls until it’s unstuck.  Penetrating oil is available at auto parts stores.

9.       Turn over the sinker plate and make sure wheels and brushes spin completely freely.  If they don’t, use a cross-point screwdriver to remove them, then remove any fuzz or bits of yarn.  When you put them back on, use a drop of oil, and they should spin.

10.   After a while, take the needles out of their soak and reinstall them one by one, wiping them down, looking them over to see that they are straight and the tiny “latches” open and close easily.  Don’t use a bent needle or one that won’t open and close.  If the latches don’t work, the needle won’t knit.  Replacement needles aren’t usually terribly hard to get.  It’s a good idea to move the needles to new places.  The needles in the center of the bed get the most wear, so move those to the ends of the bed.  If you don’t have quite enough needles, “borrow” some from the ends of the bed so the middle ones are all filled in and order some spares.

11.   Test the machine!  If you’re a beginner, work the Beginner Course with it, and after that, go in the manual and check that it will do fair isle, tuck, slip stitch, and lace, whatever patterning it was designed to do. 

12.   Now that your machine is feeling so much better, keep it in the pink with a little routine maintenance!  Whenever you walk by it, poke the buttons and move the levers to keep them working.  Keep it oiled and wiped down, and give it an extra cleaning after a project.  When you vacuum, vacuum the machine, too.  Keep it indoors and out of the sunshine, and cover it when you’re not knitting. 

How Difficult is Machine Knitting?

My mission is to help people who want to get their knitting machine out of the case, learn it, have fun with it, and make things.

So, how difficult is machine knitting to learn?  Well, I don't want to compare it to rocket science because I don't know a thing about rocket science.  But I have tried to learn a few difficult things in my life.  For instance, isn't a musical instrument rather difficult to master? 

Learning to use a knitting machine is not anywhere as difficult as learning to play most musical instruments.  If you understand and follow the steps, good knitting happens.  So why do so many people struggle to learn to machine knit?

First of all, there aren't a lot of knitting machine dealers to give private lessons.  Even though most people have lots of clothing made on knitting machines, very few people own a knitting machine.  For the general public, these are alien objects.

If you try to learn on your own, most of the knitting machine manuals have small diagrams, puzzling lists and tables of instructions, and cryptic advice.  The machine's parts and tools are strange and unfamiliar.  They don't look like sewing machine parts, or hand knitting tools, or other gadgets in our ordinary lives.  They're different, and they have peculiar names.

I use a common teaching method, that is, breaking the tasks into their individual steps and then working to describe the step in sufficient detail to make each step easy.  Video is a wonderful medium for doing this, since I get to use pictures, sound, and movement, but diagrams and written instructions are often also necessary.

Most of the videos I do are free.  You can find them here:  https://www.youtube.com/user/dianaknits

I also have some for sale at www.dianaknits.com.  My Beginner Course is two DVDs, nothing fancy, just a methodical course.  If you'll just watch a lesson and do that one lesson each day, you'll be quite proficient in a little over a month! 

How to Improve Your Life (and the Lives of Others) With an Altruistic Hobby

How to Improve Your Life (and the Live of Others) With an Altruistic Hobby

Guest post by Maria Cannon

Photo courtesy of Pixabay by aitoff

Did you know that volunteer work and community service have some surprising health benefits? That’s right; as it turns out, your altruistic hobbies benefit more than just the community and those in need.

While altruism - or the act of selflessly giving to those in need - is often seen as an external benefit to those on the receiving end, recent scientific research is now indicating that these selfless actions might have mutual benefits for both parties - including a variety of health benefits. In fact, modern evolutionary psychologists now believe altruism is a particularly useful trait that humans evolved as a means of survival (and it’s not just humans; altruism has been observed in other members of the animal kingdom, too).

As one psychology website bluntly puts it: “Compassion, cooperation and community are key to our survival.” In addition to bringing happiness, joy and fulfillment, making a hobby out of doing charitable actions can actually improve your life in more tangible ways.

Here are just a few of the ways altruism helps you, in addition to helping those on the receiving end:

Mental Health

Whether you are feeling anxious or suffering from depression, incorporating a beloved hobby into your daily life can help reduce your stress levels and improve your mood.

Addiction Recovery

As any addict will tell you: recovering from drug or alcohol addiction is not easy. Luckily, hobbies can help make it a smoother process for you. Stress-reducing hobbies like yoga, tai chi, qi gong and meditation have been shown to be particularly effective among recovering addicts and alcoholics.

Mental Fitness

Hobbies challenge your brain by helping you to build new skills. As you gain these new skillsets, you will have feelings of accomplishment and increased confidence. In addition, particular hobbies such as yoga and tai chi have been shown to potentially reduce your chances of developing certain forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease.

Self Esteem

Hobbies also provide opportunities for socializing and making new friends. As you get better at tasks you enjoy, you’ll become more confident and your self-esteem will naturally increase. Hobbying can be a great way to boost your confidence while also doing something you already love.

Think the benefits listed above are just one-time coincidences? Think again! Recent research has consistently shown that giving back to one’s own community can be as rewarding for the person doing the giving as it is for the person on the receiving end.

As you can see, there are many clear ways that altruistic hobbies can be beneficial for everyone involved. Next time you are thinking of doing a good deed, you will already know that there might be some surprising health benefits in store for you. In exchange for your kind behavior, you might actually be doing yourself some favors by possibly improving your physical, emotional and mental health. So… why not give back to your local community? After all, you’ll be helping others while also helping yourself.