Origami!!!

[Tyler]

Tom B, if you have the fidgets, you might consider learning Cat's Cradle!
You only need one piece of string (two if you are REALLY picky) and you have the comfort that it may save your life by distracting native cannibals if your plane crashes in New Guinea. That's what the book said, anyway.

Umm, isn't that a "two-person" activity? Tom

There are lots of "two-person activities" that humans often opt to do alone...

[TomB]

Tom B, if you have the fidgets, you might consider learning Cat's Cradle!
You only need one piece of string (two if you are REALLY picky) and you have the comfort that it may save your life by distracting native cannibals if your plane crashes in New Guinea. That's what the book said, anyway.

Umm, isn't that a "two-person" activity? Tom

There are lots of "two-person activities" that humans often opt to do alone...

Tyler, I must meet you some day. I may have to go to SLC, just for that reason, alone.

So, then, I should say- "isn't Cat's Cradle a game REQUIRING the use of four hands"?

[Tyler]

Umm, isn't that a "two-person" activity? Tom

There are lots of "two-person activities" that humans often opt to do alone...

Tyler, I must meet you some day. I may have to go to SLC, just for that reason, alone.

...i'm trying to decide if I should be afraid or excited.......

[turtleneck]

Tom does counted cross stitch and needlepoint.

My wife does counted cross-stitch, also. Well, sometimes. When she's doing it, she goes full bore, and then does not do it for a year or two.

Tom

Forgive my ignorance, but is counted cross-stitch the same as cross-stitch? Or are there some people out there who are cross-stitching like crazy and not counting a single stitch; only stopping when they run out of floss?

[TomB]

Tom does counted cross stitch and needlepoint.

My wife does counted cross-stitch, also. Well, sometimes. When she's doing it, she goes full bore, and then does not do it for a year or two.

Tom

Forgive my ignorance, but is counted cross-stitch the same as cross-stitch? Or are there some people out there who are cross-stitching like crazy and not counting a single stitch; only stopping when they run out of floss?

That's an excellent point. I don't know the answer.

I love your description though. If somebody did that, maybe they would become the Andy Wharhol of Counted Cross-Stitch.

Tom

[TomB]

There are lots of "two-person activities" that humans often opt to do alone...

Tyler, I must meet you some day. I may have to go to SLC, just for that reason, alone.

...i'm trying to decide if I should be afraid or excited.......

Tyler: Be afraid, be very very afraid.

Nah, you are a large dude who has automatic weapons and knows how to use them. I, on the other hand, am a not so large dude, who does not own any weapons and survives on my wit and charm.

In reality, I enjoy your posts, even if they are meant simply to inflate your personal post count

I think I'd enjoy sitting down and tipping back a cold one with you.

Tom

[Cynth]

Forgive my ignorance, but is counted cross-stitch the same as cross-stitch? Or are there some people out there who are cross-stitching like crazy and not counting a single stitch; only stopping when they run out of floss?

Oh dear, that's funny.

Counted cross stitch is done on special fabic (sort of in the needlepoint family of fabrics) in which the threads are far enough apart and large enough for the human eye to see and count them--so you get stitches that are very, very identical looking, they are all exactly the same size. Usually counted cross stitch is all filled in with cross stitch, sort of like needle point is all filled in. Depending on the special fabric, the size of the stitch can vary, but it is often quite small.

Just plain cross-stitch, in my experience, is usually done by stamping (ironing) a pattern on regular fabric. The pattern looks like a bunch of purple x's. No matter how hard you try, you can't get it to look quite as accurate as counted cross stitch. The threads in regular cotton fabric are just too tiny to count. I think quite often the pattern is not necessarily filled with cross stitches. The stitches in regular cross stitch are usually larger than in counted cross stitch. Regular cross stitch might also be done on checked fabric. Then you would have a pattern of squares that you look at but you wouldn't have to stamp it on the fabric because your stitches would be just the same size as the checks---the checks would guide you.

Umm, I hope you were really wanting an answer to that question.

[Walden]

Tom B, if you have the fidgets, you might consider learning Cat's Cradle!
You only need one piece of string (two if you are REALLY picky) and you have the comfort that it may save your life by distracting native cannibals if your plane crashes in New Guinea. That's what the book said, anyway.

Umm, isn't that a "two-person" activity? Tom

Cat's Cradle, per se, is a two-person activity, but you could always do Crow's Feet or Cup and Saucer all by your lonesome.

[Innocent Bystander]

Cat's Cradle?
There ARE a few Cat's Cradle games that require four hands (or even more), but there are many, many figures that only need one pair of hands.
I have pictures somewhere of a Japanese Dance company doing a six-person dance involving weaving a stage-sized cat's cradle.

Even the figures used in the "everybody knows" cat's cradle game you can do on your own: The soldier's bed, the Pig on the Pegs, the Starfish and the crow's feet.

And I've been stuck late at night at a Railway Station with only a bit of string, and amused myself for hours working out the variations to the Osage Diamonds.

[Walden]

There are instructions for several string figures, here: http://www.darsie.net/string/

[Caru]

There are tons of string figures that one person can do alone. Telling stories with string figure illustrations is done in several cultures. Check out the International String Figure Association on the web at www.isfa.org or try Caroline Jayne's excellent book "String Figures and How to Make Them" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books), which was originally published about a hundred years ago.

[turtleneck]

Umm, I hope you were really wanting an answer to that question.

I sure was. Thanks!

[Tommy]

I just ordered an origami book off the internet, hoping it'll be fun. Does anybody here do origami? How much do you enjoy it? I've done origami once or twice, nothing special. It looks challenging, but fun at the same time!

Collin

Band Nerd lives in Beaumont, Texas.

[Lambchop]

I've watched my grandmother knit and crochet, but it looks really complex and intricate.

Not at all . . . they're both very, very simple. Each starts with one basic "thing" and then that "thing" is done over and over again. Once you get the hang of the basic "thing," you can then see how the variations are done.

They look a lot more complicated than they are.

They're all done one row at a time. You make a whole row of -------. Then, you turn it around and make an x in each -, all the way across. Turn it around and make an x in each x all the way across, etc., etc. If you then start skipping an x here and there, or making taller x's, or doing 2 x's in an x, you get all those patterns. But, it's all one row at a time. One "thing" at a time.

Look at it this way . . . until a hundred years ago or so, the only way you'd have a pair of socks or a sweater or an afghan would be if you knitted it yourself. If all those people did it--and often did it while walking around minding the sheep--how hard can it be?

[Caru]

You can find a radio program about origami on bbc.co.uk/radio this week. From the main site, click on "Factual" under the Speech category in the Listen column on the right side of the page. The program is called "Fold Here First" and I think it'll be available until Friday.