The Kotary Coterie

Welcome to our new site members.  I don't get much time to update the site and add new content, but when I do you will be the first to know.

I just got back from the CGOA annual convention in Buffalo.  I did a ton of networking and I am really excited about the publications and publishers I hope to be working with during this next year.

I put some links to some of the things I have done recently for Coats and Clark on my Ravelry page last night.  If you go to http://www.coatsandclark.com/   you will see  the granny square jacket I made this spring.  If you do a search for Kotary, it will show you a bunch of things I have done.  The really cool thing about the jacket is that it is sized.  It is  difficult to size a garment made in square motifs and I couldn't find another one like it on the web.

If you are in the NYC area, watch the calendar page.  I will be doing some really great crochet classes at 3rd Ward in Williamsburg this fall.  Check out 3rd Ward at http://www.3rdward.com/classes/

If you ever need help with a pattern or other craftual stuff, please feel welcome to contact me.  If you have my hotmail address, please use that.  The website host only allows me to receive a certain number free e-mails each month.  You can also use the forum page I set up to share with each other.

One of these days I'm going to post pictures of work from my students and classes.  If you would like me to share pictures of your work, please feel welcome to send them to me.  Especially if it is from my handouts or published patterns.  I LOVE to see that stuff.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Kim Kotary

I finally got my day in court this week and the judgement came in the mail today.  I was awarded half of what I asked for payment on a project I did last summer.  However, there was a counter claim filed against me.  The arbitrator is making me pay for someone else to complete a job from which I was fired.  If you include what I spent  (and still owe) to hire other people to work on this and other projects for this client, I have a net loss of  about $1200 for the priviledge of working for a disreputable client.

The moral of this story is: You must get everything in writing before you start a project.  You must have documentation that is legally binding if you want to try to collect anything from an employer who decides they don't have to pay you for your work. Implicit contracts are not legally binding.  However, what you write in the memo line on a check is admissible evidence.

May you never feel the rage I feel right now.

Kim

Last Summer at Chain Link my CGOA Mentor introduced me to Bobbie Matela, who now works for Coats & Clark.  I am having a blast doing projects for Coats.  I've had the opportunity to make some beautiful things.  You can make some of my creations for yourself.  The patterns are available for free.

Check out the Roundabout Cardigan.  You can learn a new way to crochet ribbing that looks knit.  And the yarn is the marvelous new Eco-ways.  Make this cardi then let me know if your knitting friends are surprised to findout that your cardi is actually crocheted from yarn that contains 30% recycled polyester made from plastics found in soda and water bottles.

http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Crochet/Projects/Apparel/WR1774%2bRoundabout%2bCardigan.htm

You might also like the Long Tabard made from Red Heart Fiesta.  This one also has the great slip stitch ribbing that looks knit.  Once you get the hang of it, the ribbing is easy and fun.

http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Crochet/Projects/Apparel/WR1776%2bLong%2bTabard.htm

A crocheter contacted me from this site with a question about working into the starting chain of toe-up socks. Unfortunately, the e-mail address she provided didn't work.  I hope she will check back and see this post.

Here is her question:

I've been looking at your "You Can Crochet Socks" book and have a question about the "Berries" pattern. It says "....working in the unused lps on the opposite side of beg ch...." From the beginning of the whole paragraph I'm only supposed to used the front loops of the chain once to begin the single crochet, then I do the 3 single crochet in one chain, then single crochet in the back loops? Is that what you're trying to say?

Thanks for the help!
 
Janice

Here is my response:

Janice,

Thanks for buying the book!!  The berries pattern is the simplest pattern in the book and a great place to start. 

When you start the toe, you end up working into both sides of the starting chain with 3 sc in each end.  You should have a marker in the middle stitch of each group of 3 sc.  Basically, there are 3 yarns in a chain stitch.  You use the left over loop when you go back across the chains.  There are 2 other patterns that use the same toe.

If you a planning to come to Chain Link in Buffalo in August, I hope you will introduce yourself.  I'm teaching on Saturday and Sunday.  You might especially be interested in "Custom Fitting Crocheted Socks" on Sunday.  I will post the registration info on my website as soon as it is available.

I also put up a forum page.  You are welcome to post questions or comments about anything remotely related to the content of my site and I will try to check in at least once a day.

Kim

When I started teaching, almost half of my students were Spanish speaking.  I got permission from Lion Brand to use their Learn to Crochet pdf in Spanish.  Here is the link so you can check it out yourself.

http [:/] /www.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/faq-search.cgi?store [=/] stores/eyarn&learnToCrochet=1

 I had the English and Spanish versions side by side to help me communicate with my students.

However, there are many dialects of Spanish.  The Lion Brand Spanish seems to be Madrid Spanish.  My students are from Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries.  I found a couple websites with translations of certain technical terms.

Check out:

http [:/] /www.geocities.com/riverglorious/puntos.html

http [:/] /www.crochetmemories.com/language.html


When I started teaching there were beginners who had never touched a hook who spoke some English and advanced beginners who didn?t speak any English.  I studied French for 8 years in high school and college but I only knew a few useless nouns and adjectives in Spanish.  Well not totally useless, I could get pan y huevos at the corner bodega.

We had huge language barriers to overcome.  Crochet is a technical language all its own multiplied by the Spanish/English barrier, we had some frustrating classes.  Fortunately, my students appreciate that I am making an effort to learn some Spanish.  They correct me if I say buenos días instead of  buenas tardes.  DH hates it when I try to speak Spanish.  He was born and raised on the Brooklyn side of Queens near a Latino neighborhood.  I am a county girl from central New York State.  I don?t think I met anyone who spoke Spanish as their primary language until I went to college.  He tells me I?m embarrassing myself and that I look like a tourist asking to get mugged.


Back to teaching crochet - - I tried to find things on the internet to help my students  but the free patterns available are complex projects that they weren?t interested in making.  So I started trying to translate my own handouts.  A lovely CGOA (http [:/] /www.crochet.org/) member tried helping me by translating a hat pattern.  Before we finished, I sold the copyright to the hat pattern to a publisher (http [:/] /www.anniesattic.com/crochet/detail.html?prod_id=23486).  I tried again.  Everyone seem to enjoy learning the basic ripple pattern so I started plugging in the Spanish-Crochet vocabulary I was developing.


Finally, I was blessed with a new group of students.  A skilled crocheter named Argentina looked over my ripple pattern.  She said all I needed to do was add articles and fix the gender agreement.  Woo Hoo.


So check out the ONDA pattern on the free patterns page or the links above if you are trying to over come the language barrier with someone you know.

My title has nothing to do with the song by Loudon Wainwright III but if you haven't heard the song, it is funny.

If you couldn't guess, my mom is my biggest fan.  She has always been very supportive of my "career" choices.  My mom worked in a job she hated for 30+ years.  The job had great benefits but ate away at her.  I consider enjoying my work and the satisfaction I get from it, part of the pay, even if that doesn't help cover the rent.

I had a good laugh when I spoke with mom on the phone yesterday.  She left a message with DH the night before that she had a surprise. Mom was flipping through the Herrshner's catalog and saw my sock book.  She was so excited, she probably called everyone she knows. 

So this is my first blog entry ever. 

I was just getting some handouts ready for my classes tomorrow and thought I would try putting some pdf's up for general consumption.  If you go to the Free Crochet Patterns page you will find some of the handouts that I have created for my classes.  You are welcome to download them for personal use but please do not print multiple copies to share with the world.  The reason website owners provide free patterns is to draw traffic to their sites.  If you want to share my files, please recommend that your friends come to my page and download the patterns for themselves.  If you are a teacher, please respect my copyright as I respect yours.  I had to create my own handouts and you should create your own so that you can tailor them to the needs of your students.

Enough of the formalities.  I love feedback on my patterns and handouts.  It is the best way to improve them.  My students are great at helping find mistakes or ways to make them more understandable.  Let me know what you think.