Reading another post, some of you mentioned being left handed. I am, Are You and if so what is your beef.

Mine is when I'm sewing and I take out the pins, I remove them with my right hand and put them in a countainer on my right side when in actual fact I would rather take them out with my left hand and put them on my left side but the material is usually in the way! :x

One of mine is scissors. I learned how to use regular, I tried left handed ones, and they won't work because I press wrong and they don't cut. Some regulars aren't good either.

I never fully realized all of the issues until my step son came into my life. I watched him struggle in a right handers world. I thought by now there would be better left handed products. He still complains about finding good scissors...
My old iron was set up for both, the cord came out of the back, not the side.

I'm a lefty who uses mostly right handed tools, but I LOVE my left handed Martelli rotary cutter. I think rulers on cutting mats are my biggest challenge now. They go backwards for me.

Don't you just wish they would make a left handed sewing machine? I would LOVE to take the pins out without the throat being in the way too. It will never happen. I have learned to use the rotary cutting mat to turn things when I am cutting the 'wrong' way. But most of the time, I just have to flip to cut, and the rulers are always wrong. Now they have printed them either way, and that too me is even more confusing. I guess it is a right handed world..

I am a lefty and sissors have always been one of my beefs.I can now find left handed sissors but back in my high school days when I cut things out it was really hard on my thumb to use sissors. My Mother finally found me left hand sissors. I threatened husband then kids if they touched my sissors they were in trouble. Now it's the Grandkids that get threatened.

I'm a lefty who has grown up in a righty world- I can't keep track of what I do with either hand anymore. I eat & write left, but sports are righty; rotary cutter, cooking-stirring-spoon-side is left...
Scissors, desks, pens, sewing machines, notebooks, ... you name it, it's made for a right-handed person.
It's frustrating, I feel your pain!
Pick up a pen with a business name printed on it- if you hold it in your right hand, you can read the writing. If you hold it with your left it's upside down.
ARgh.

I'm left-handed and I can't use left-handed scissors. Learned to cut with right-handed ones as a kid and never could change. Somebody once gave me a left-handed potato peeler and I couldn't figure that one out either! My DH is left-handed too - I went out with him several times before I noticed. But not one of our 3 kids is a lefty.

Don't ya know? We're the only ones in our "right" mind!! :lol: :wink: :thumbup:

I have an odd story to tell. I am also a lefty, but wasn't born that way. My natural bend was to be a right handed gal, but my weird Dad wanted me to be a lefty (very strange man). Anyway, I think I have the best of both worlds; analytical like the right handed folks and creative like the lefties. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it! :lol:

DH is totally ambidextrous, and has convinced me of something awesome. We both love to do crossword puzzles, and often one of us can answer a clue the other one doesn't know. However, he figured out one day that when he couldn't get the answer with his left hand, he put his pen in his right hand and voila`! :shock: Yes, really, he swears this works and has proven it to me time after time.

So, as I go along in life, I find myself starting to do more things with both hands. The results really are interesting. :thumbup: Notice that emoticon; even it's left handed, lol. It can't be all that bad! :lol:

I do agree with what the other posters have said tho, as far as it being a right hand dominant world. My back will never be the same after having to sit and write in those idiot right armed desks! What an awful form of punishment that was!!
:(

Karla in CO

I think that after adapting to so many "wrong" things, I don't consider too much as being uncomfortable. But- I would LOVE the rulers on the cutting mat to be lefty. I get tired of having to use my brain and do the math all the time.

That and to get the rightys in the family to put the iron and board back where I need it. (Although my daughters iron lefty, wierd)

I am left handed also, I had a first grade teacher who smacked my hand with a ruler for not using my right hand. My mom and dad are left handed also, I have 5 brothers and sister who are all right handed.

I have no trouble cutting with scissors, or a rotary cutter, but would like to find a ruler for lefties.

My mom taught me how to do everything left handed. I remove my pins from the left side, pins pointing towards raw edges facing towards the motor of the machine. Does that make sense? I thought everyone pinned this way. LOL

I batt a ball right handed, also bowl left handed. I guess

Lefties are supposed to be very creative, from what I have seen here, all of the beautiful quilts it does not seem to make a difference.
JulieM

One thing I find EXTREMELY frustrating is that instructions are written for those that are right handed and the last sentence will say if you're left-handed do the opposite. That makes me crazy because sometimes I need to read directions over and over which means that I have to read and reverse, read and reverse, read and reverse.... sometimes pictures are involved, how easy is it to reverse a picture in your head!! I have learned to look at pictures in a mirror which helps.
Oh and scissors that are supposedly universal AREN'T.
If you draw a line and try to cut on the line you will be @ 1/16 off.

I'm not, but my sister is.

I also am left-handed, but have used my right hand for all the "right-handed stuff", scissors, etc. I've really never had a problem, no beef here.
:D

My pet peeve is when others comment on my being left handed (LH) as though it is a disease!! I see it as a unique trait - after all, there are fewer LHers and I can choose to interpret that as special! I personally think it is more of an advantage than a hindrance - like acquiring the ambidextrous skills and having more L and R brain crossover and function. I personally would like RH others to just not find it necessary to so often make the comments about seating arrangements, etc. - I and likely most LHers can easily make their own adjustments without disrupting anyone else.
I seem to have adjusted to using sewing tools O.K. Most rotary cutters can be changed to LH and when I got some tendonitis, the Martelli LH cutter was a great purchase. Changing the direction/side of the fabric and ruler on the mat solves that dilemma easily.. The extra time I take to interpret patterns means I have looked more closely at all the steps and less likely, I think, to make a mistake. Ambi scissors are fine and my LH gingher shears are a bonus.
Although I have L and R confusion at times I have learned to treat it with a sense of humor - after all, think of all the naturally curly haired people who would like to have straight hair sometimes and the straight haired who would like curly. Having curly hair is often seen as an advantage - except to some of those with curly hair. I hope I have not offended anyone, I have not meant to - its really that being L handed is just one of the things that makes me who I am, no better or worse than anyone else.

Yes Yes Yes ctmhjenn I to wish they would make a left handed sewing machine and left handed rulers. Someone talked about left handed rotary cutters. Where can I get one? Being left handed and trying to cut,read patterns and sew is a real struggle for me. I have always said every quilt I make I make twice with all the ripping out,re cutting, resewing but I refuse to give up.

Being a lefty has not ever been a problem for me except those silly one sided desks. Other than that, I consider it an advantage in a few things. I have a friend who said she couldn't see how I could do things left handed. So I told her I couldn't see how she could do things right handed. LOL Also had three children, all are lefties as well. My brother is lefty also but had to switch to his right hand due to some nerve problem later in life. And, yes, we lefties are the only ones in our right mind and also usually more intelligent and more creative than the norm. So, I enjoy being a lefty. I hope I qualify for the "talented" and "smarter" categories. LOL

This is a poem I wrote about 5 years ago on the subject of being left-handed in a right-handed world. I LOVE being left-handed. It makes me stand out from the crowd. About 9 or 10 percent of the population is left-handed, but the men outnumber the women two to one. (even in my own group I'm special).


IN YOUR RIGHT-HANDED WORLD

Yes, hire the left-handed.
It’s fun to watch them write.
I’ll bet you didn’t have a clue,
How many of us are bright.

Problem solving skills we have,
Inventions we have wrought.
Ponder all that lefties do,
With our opposing thought.

Schweitzer was among our group,
And old Ben Franklin too.
Joan of Arc, and Edward R.,
Just to name a few.

The things you take for granted,
For us can be a task.
To you we may seem backward.
“Why is it so?” you ask.

But in our “right minds” southpaws say,
“It’s you who backward be,
Just because we number few,
It’s our point, don’t you see?”

Our numbers are increasing though.
The ratio is mounting,
And someday soon we’ll take command.
On this, I know we’re counting.

Okay, I’m joking on that point.
But don’t you see our plight?
How many items built for you,
Who use them on the right?

I’d love to see you deal with,
the things we have to bear.
And even dieing younger too,
Or don’t you even care?

So when you think in great concern,
Of poor minorities,
Remember us, the 10 percent.
Be kind to lefties, PLEASE!!


Anne L. Fulton
February 14, 2004
Attleboro, Massachusetts

Olfa makes a cutter that the blade can be changed to either left or right handed

yes, i've never understood why scissors won't work with either hand. very odd. there are times when i'd like to cut with my left hand but it usually won't work.

i'm a right handed barber and my friend is a left handed barber, and we absolutely cannot use each other's hair shears.

funny story from a lefty's point of view. We were at the lake this past summer with our family. My dil was helping me make breakfast, pancakes and sausage and bacon. Jenny flipped the pancakes, and it was all I could do not to take the spatula from her and show her the correct way. It looked so awkward the way she was flipping them with her right hand. We laughed and laughed when I told her. Sometimes righties look as funny to us as we must to them!

I am left handed as well, but I can also use my right hand for some things. I write left handed, bowl and play ball right handed. I can cut either way or use scissors either way. I have the Martelli left & right hand cutter. Takes some getting used to but I really like them. I once had an elderly person as she watched me write say that evil people were left handed. I thought that rather rude and I am definately not evil. :evil:

back in school I had a teacher turn my paper so it was the direction righties write. I turned it back and told her I don't write that way. She turned it again, so I put my pen down and refused to do the assignment. The next day she didn't bother my paper. I don't write upside down. I turn my paper and write as righties write, just with my left hand. Do any of you?
I knit and crochet left handed, but not like most lefties. I learned mirror image from my mom, a rightie. so it looks different than most others yarn work.

One gal mentioned the Martelli Rotary cutter. I have one too for my left hand, and LOVE IT...now on to getting them to fix the RULERS!

I have a nephew who is left handed. Growing up he would get frustrated trying to do things with his left hand that was for righties only. He swore he was going to open a store called Lefties R Us. Everything in the store for left handed people only. I wonder how well it would have done if he had opened a store like that.

[quote=redrummy] I don't write upside down. I turn my paper and write as righties write, just with my left hand. Do any of you?


I am the same way.

I have just done things the way that feels "natural" to me - removing pins with my left hand (they point to the right) was something I didn't even know was not the norm! Quilting doesn't seem to give me many troubles, but when I taught myself to crochet - that took some effort! EVERYTHING had to be done the opposite of what was described. I'd say other things in life are more of a hassle than quilting - ladles with the pour spout on the wrong side??!! How about serrated knives with the serrrated edge only on one side - the WRONG side??!!!

I've seen our President signing documents with his left hand. Googling "left handed" give some very interesting tidbits - famous people, etc.

Conversation over dinner:

A husband asks his wife, "Honey, if I died, would you remarry?"
"After a considerable period of grieving, I guess I would. We all need companionship."

"If I died and you remarried," the husband asks, "would he live in this house?"
"We've spent a lot of money getting this house just the way we want it. I'm not going to get rid of my house. I guess he would."

"If I died and you remarried, and he lived in this house," the husband asks, "would he sleep in our bed?"
"Well, the bed is brand new, and it cost us $2000. It's going to last a long time, so I guess he would."

"If I died and you remarried, and he lived in this house and slept in our bed, would he use my golf clubs?"
"Oh, no!" the wife replies. "He's left-handed!"

try the spring action scissors.. they are razor sharp without using pressure of the "left right thing".. they may be what you need.

I'm a lefty forced to use my right hand. I deal a deck of cards with my left and wield hammers, screwdrivers and the like with my left hand. I use my right to cook and both to sew and quilt.

As for scissors I use the softtouch by fiskers. These I can switch from hand to hand with no problem. I use grey handled ones for sewing and blue ones for paper. I use the fiskers rotary cutter for right handed people in my left hand. It's a bit awkward to hold and avoid retracting the blade. I'll look into the Martinelli left handed rotary cutter.

This thread reminded me of my wonderful and dear grandmother who was left handed. She was forced to learn to write with her right hand and actually wrote with both hands. Amazingly my right handed handwriting looks just like her left handed writing. She crocheted "backwards" and said that no matter how many times people tried to copy her work, especially the crocheted slippers she made, no one could ever do it successfully.

She taught me to crochet and to sew and I am pretty sure that I learned some of her left handed "techniques." Sometimes I hand stitch one way and sometimes the other way. At some point I noticed that bows that I tie are always upside down and I am pretty sure that she must have taught me. It turned out well, though. I can tie bows upside down, right side up and backwards and forwards!

Gosh, I miss her so much still today.

There is a left handed store in Toronto. They are online. Just Google Sinister Shop. I do everything left handed except some crafts. When you only have a right handed teacher...you learn to do right handed. Some things can be adapted but others can't.

I once read that everyone is born right handed but only the gifted overcome it.

Isn't that true! Look at how many things we lefties have learned to do with our right hands because our gifted minds can adapt. Most of us are pretty much ambidextrous. How much can most right-handed people do with their left hand?

I am a lefty too and I sure wish they would make left handed rulers too

I'm sorry, but I don't see how a ruler can be considered left or right handed. Being a very-much left handed person, I see no problem with any ruler that I have. I also have a rotary cutter that can be used either left or right handed, which to me is better than having one that is dedicated to only one hand. What am I missing here?

I have a left handed husband and daughter. My husband's biggest complaint is scissors and my daughter's is instructions of all kinds! I feel for left handers.

I am also a lefty. I have two pairs of Gingher "left-handed" scissors and love them. No problem. Just DO NOT left a righty use them.
I don't seem to have problems with the rotary cutter has I can change the blade to the appropiate side.

You know besides being in our right mind, they say we are more artistic.

To all of you, have a great Christmas, Holiday.

Thank you for this information. I'm a righty but I have a 4 year old granddaughter that is a lefty. I'm ordering her her own scissors now. I never thought about it. Duh! I know.

I'm right handed but used to sit in my school desk seat facing the opening, with my legs out. i turned my paper so the top would be facing the left and the side toward me. it was the only way I could write in the small desk space.
my son is left handed.

Try crocheting left-handed......lol! I taught myself by reading the instructions and doing it backwards however I could never learn to crochet that smallest crochet thread until I sat down with my MIL and watched her crotchet slowly right handed and followed along with her movements left handed......I was off and running then......that amazed me....