A Back-Handed Explanation

In considering what to include in this journal, I've been thinking back to the times when I learned new needlecraft skills. If you do an internet search, you can find a lot of material out there on learning left-handed. However, while the basics are there for us lefties, there's no information on what to actually do when we progress past our first potholder or scarf. You could take a class, but, unless you luck out, you're going to have a right-handed instructor. I remember trying to learn to crochet from my right-handed grandmother--an experience even more exasperating than teaching my right-handed son how to tie his shoes. In the end, many "How To" books and websites advise you to "simply learn right-handed" if you can't figure out how to do it left-handed. Hmmm...I wonder how those right-handed people would like it if their left-handed instructor told them, "Oh, just learn left-handed. It doesn't really matter anyway"?

So, now that my children are old enough to leave me in peace, and the kitten has learned that messing with yarn in motion is not the way to win my heart, I'm going to start reexploring the art of knitting; venture into some more difficult crochet projects (asymetry, here I come!!); and may even get out those tatting supplies that I just had to have NOW NOT LATER--three years ago. As I do, I'll revisit my own learning process, and discuss problems I run up against.