It’s been over a week since I returned home from a weekend in Portland better known as #craftgasm. It was the most fun I’ve had in recent memory, and I really can’t find words to describe it beyond that. To spend a weekend with crafters of all sorts, all of whom live such amazingly creative lives, was a treat, and that’s that. With one exception, I had never met anyone in person before the weekend, and that was neither awkward nor important. Sister Diane and Susan Beal showed incredible hospitality, and through them I fell in love with Portland all over again, and with each of the people I got to hang out with.
Lee, Diane (twice), Rachel, Betsy, Jen, Andrea (twice) and Susan wrote about it, and I won’t be redundant (plus, there’s a Flickr group with photos). I am, though, working on writing about some other stuff that came to mind during or because of the weekend. Before I switch topics, I’ll mention that Handmade Nation, the documentary that inspired our gathering in Portland, will be screening on 9th July (my birthday!) here in Vancouver. I’m gonna see it again, mostly because I want to hang out with crafty types here in town, too.
Ok, topic switch. In Portland, Rachel really wanted to learn how to crochet, and we, along with Diane, embarked upon a great adventure during which I realized it’s incredibly dumb that we start beginners off learning double crochet.
I came home with a fire under my butt to work out a tutorial to help beginners through some of the confusion that always (ALWAYS) plagues people when they’re starting out with this ubiquitous, annoying (and dare-I-say sometimes hideous) stitch. My attempt at videotaping it (do we still say “videotaping” even though we don’t record on tape anymore?) was an epic failure of both my Flip and my wee Canon camera to focus properly during close-up filming, so I resorted to using photos. (Regardless, I see more video in my future, especially after discovering blip.tv, which is made of win.)
Anyway, I’ve finally posted the tutorial, and I hope it does help.
Sounds like a great event. I think the craftiness and creativity is what I miss at the regular “blogger” events.