Working out Kinks and Fingering Yarn

When working on this blog a few years ago, there came a point where I felt, and I think Ana did to, that we had covered the majority of the basics of knitting for blind crafters, and we were going to have to begin thinking of a different type of material to keep contributing to the blog. Around this time, I went back to college, and life suddenly became much busier. Sadly, writing for the blog was the ball I dropped in the juggling act of life. The good news is that we all tend to go back to things we love doing, and I have wanted to get back to writing about knitting. I also find myself in that limbo between graduation and landing a job that plagues so many students, so this is a great time for me to refresh the blog and begin adding new content.

I have spent the last 6 years or so being a full-time college student, so between that and being a mom and wife, my knitting has taken a backseat to the more stressful things in life. One of the best things about the past year, which has been a bit less hectic, has been getting back to knitting. Now I am in that all too familiar knitting situation – too many works in progress leading to nothing ever getting finished. In some ways, it is like I am still finding my rhythm again. I am working on way too many sweaters and cardigans on light weight yarn and small needles, which is not helping the situation at all. Over the next few weeks, I will post about the projects I am working on, and hopefully roll out some new ideas meant to help blind people who are learning to knit or crochet.

One of my ideas is a YouTube channel devoted to video tutorials for people who can’t see the videos well or at all. The videos would essentially be verbal descriptions of knitting skills much like our previous blog posts have been written descriptions. There are a lot of video tutorials out already, but I find most of them very frustrating because the person speaking in the video usually assumes that the viewer can see what he/she is doing in the video. At the same time, it is easier to listen to a video and do the steps than it is to try the new technique while reading a blog post. I think the answer is videos based more on verbal descriptions. Most likely, there will still be a visual component, but it won’t be required that the listener see the screen to use the video.

Please let me know in the comments if you would be interested in video tutorials for blind and low-vision crafting. We are also open to any ideas about how we can make this blog even better for our readers, so give us any ideas you have.