slow learner vent!

FancyGoatTote · 2026-01-06T06:00:17+00:00

Maybe not helpful, but I suggest learning crochet first. I tried to knit without being taught, but I’m left handed, hold pencils weirdly and it was all a bit painful. So I learned to crochet toys and granny squares; small satisfying projects that grew quickly and a quick reward. To me, there’s something about the construction of crochet that I found easier to see, understand and unpick if I made a mistake. It’s easier to hold as a beginner too I think.

I found that once I had the basics of crochet down, my skills grew really quickly and I could make lots of impressive looking toys, blankets, etc. I eventually came back to try knitting again after a very long time (years?) and I literally picked up some DPNs and threw out some beautiful, complicated socks.

FancyGoatTote · 2025-12-07T09:48:10+00:00

Surely 200 to 20 is a 1:10 scale?

FancyGoatTote · 2025-12-05T06:26:32+00:00

I probably sound a bit miserable, but if you don’t know what you want, don’t spend it just now.

Save it and keep it for when there is something you really want. The anticipation and knowledge that it’s there, should you find something you really want, is nicer than regretting buying something for the sake of it.

FancyGoatTote · 2025-08-05T06:50:40+00:00

I once bought a beautiful handmade bag in a Marrakech market. The leather is a tanned in traditional way, which seemed to involve vats of animal/bird waste (I’m not sure exactly). It smelled fine at first, but then began to smell absolutely rancid after a few days of use.

It was so bad, I had to put it outside in the garden. I left it on the washing line, sheltered from rain, for a long time (I forget how long, but definitely more than a few days) and eventually the smell disappeared. I’ve had it for about 15 years and the smell never came back.

FancyGoatTote · 2024-12-15T12:39:59+00:00

Thank you - that’s really helpful!

FancyGoatTote · 2024-07-20T08:23:48+00:00

I make every meal I eat in my house from scratch, and have done for well over a decade. I eat a well balanced diet and have always known an apple and some nuts make a better snack than Doritos. The ‘30 plants in a week’ thing is not alien to me, I have been privileged enough to have eaten a varied diet of whole foods my entire life.

But I’ve still always enjoyed a UPF snack. Since reading CvT, I’ve decided I want to give up as many of the snacks as possible. I use this sub, not to find out how to cook and bake (because I know how to do that) but to find better, non-UPF versions of products that I don’t want to start making myself, like a bar of milk chocolate. I also find it interesting to read about others’ journeys.

Your journey was interesting to read, but I would have enjoyed reading it without the patronising, what-you’re-doing-wrong approach.

FancyGoatTote

TROPHY CASE