I have a latch hook kit. This is supposed to be therapy for my eyes which at times don’t work well together. Latch hooking is supposed to help with my manual dexterity.
I started doing this at an arts-and-crafts session at a public library. It took me 30 minutes before I got thread in one of those little squares. A fellow crafter help me a lot in getting the hang of it.
However, there was some sadness in Mudville. The kit comes with a chart that tells what color yarn and its number. But there was silence on what the colors look like. Do you know the difference between Blue Jewel and Periwinkle? I didn’t.
I’ve just spent maybe three hours to sort out the colors. Eventually, I discovered that Dark Green is 654 and Forest Green is 689. That left: Forest Green 689, Dark Green 654, Blue Jewel 818, and Periwinkle 831 to be pinned down.
I looked up the company on the internet. However, it altered its name some after I got the kit about 25 years ago. They also apparently changed their codes over the years. I got some of the codes through exhaustive and exhausting research. I now know that forest green is darker than dark green,. Egad, I feel like watching a murder mystery tonight.
I’m getting better. I can do 90 squares a hour. With a latch-hook mat comprising 8,000 squares, the whole project shall take about 90 hours. The world shall sigh in relief as this will keep off the streets where I would only foment revolution and no one wants that.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.


