If you are left handed then you need to think particularly carefully when choosing a guitar. A lefty guitar will probably feel more natural to you – and could be the right choice. However if you can bring yourself to learn on a right handed instrument you will have a much greater range to choose from, will be able to share guitars with other players and won’t have to mentally flip over the chord positions you see or read to match your fretboard. Both hands need to be doing quite precise work after all. You want to avoid choosing one type and then regretting your choice.

Hi fellow lefties!

Just wanted to let you know about Simply Lefty, a left-handed products shop. Our web address is http://www.simplylefty.com

We strive to provide quality products specially designed for left-handers and to promote awareness and acceptance for left-handed children and adults. Regretfully, many of the problems left-handers face today are due to products not being designed with left-handers in mind and we hope to be able to change that.

Rosemary: I have added a link to this website at http://www.simplylefty.com/Topic/33-resources.aspx as it will be useful reading for my visitors. I hope that you will add a link to Simply Lefty too on your list. Your visitors will benefit from our left-handed products which help to make everyday lives safer, easier and more convenient.

Hopefully, the world will be more convenient for left-handers in the future!

Just wanted to let you know about a new left-handed book that has been published: “The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion: a step-by-step stitch dictionary” by Yvette Stanton.

I am a left-handed embroiderer and embroidery teacher and for some time I have enjoyed the enthusiasm of my left-handed students when they have realised that they have a left-handed teacher for their embroidery class.

I therefore decided that if they loved having a lefty teacher so much, maybe others would too, so I packaged myself up in a book to teach left-handed embroiderers the left-handed way to stitch comfortably and easily.

The book has over 170 different stitches which includes stitch variations, and features counted thread stitches, needlepoint stitches and surface embroidery stitches, all explained in a step-by-step format, with diagrams for each step.

You can find more about “The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion” at the Vetty Creations website. It is available for purchase in all good needlework stores (if they don’t have it, ask them to get it!) and direct from Vetty Creations.

But don’t just take my word for it that it is a great book, you can also read Mary Corbet’s in depth review of the book at Needle’nThread.

Thank you!
NALHP

When I received my kit for the course the scissors I was supplied with were of inferior quality. I was surprised to see that my right handed classmates had all been supplied with a decent brand and reasonable quality model. Mine were so poor they wouldn’t cut, so I ended up supplying my own scissors that were of the same quality as those of my class mates.

By sheer bad luck they were lost by our wonderful mail service when they were returned by the sharpening company during the Christmas break. I have tried all the major wholesalers for replacements and not one of them holds physical stock in the left handed versions they sell. They claim they have to be ordered specially and it takes weeks to get them in.

I got some through the internet but had to send them back as when they eventually arrived (3 weeks after I ordered them) they were defective – to replace them I was looking at another month. I decided to upgrade and order a ‘better’ pair from a different company but was horrified to find that the two major manufacturers only make one or two left handed versions of their scissors.

If I was right handed I’d have a huge choice from Jaguar, ranging anywhere from £30 up to hundreds of pounds with all price ranges and abilities catered for. As a lefty they start at £40 and then jump to £150+. In all honesty the £150+ pair are above my current ability but it was either that or have to buy a pair from Joewell for £235. And why is it that these companies charge more for the same size and model just because it’s left handed?!?

It’s been over 2 weeks since I paid for my new scissors and this morning I got an email saying that they had just been sent from the factory in Germany. If I am lucky I might have them the middle of next week. The guy’s website claimed that they were available and would be dispatched within 48 hours… This was the reason I ordered from him and when I told him this he responded by telling me it was my fault for being left handed.

I have missed out on all of my practical lessons since returning after the Christmas break because I have nothing to cut with. If I was right handed the college could have loaned me a pair for these lessons but guess what?

They don’t have any left handed scissors and can’t help me!!!

I don’t know if being left handed is a recognised minority in the UK but I sure would like to see this so all these blasted companies have to stop penalising me for it

There is absolutely no excuse for this. Two-sided desks have been available for decades. Other schools purchase them. Why in the 21st century would a public institution be permitted to continue discriminating against 15% of the population? This is simply unbelievable.

This same gene also increases the risk of schizophrenia, which is crazy because I have that and some other left-handers I know from the internet have it… weird huh?

-Summer Fields