Crochet

Yup, I've done it!  I learned how to crochet!  Yay me!  Well... in all seriousness, I learned at the same time as knitting (which was 15 years ago), but only knitting stuck.  Have you ever felt like you were missing out on something, simply because you didn't know how to do it?  I felt like that, for the longest time.  I would see the most awesome project, find out it was crochet, and feel mildly depressed and willing to throw things out the window.  Not really, but anyone who has learned one thing, but not the sister craft, knows how I feel.  The funny thing is, instead of just LEARNING how to crochet, I would bitch about the ridiculousness of using 1 hook.  How can anyone trust their stitches to so long an absence from needles?  Absurd! 

Yeah... That's what I did.  And I know I'm not alone among my Knitty friends, either!  So, I took out one of my learning books (for kids, don't judge me!), and I taught myself, in one evening.  At first, I couldn't understand why my gauge (or tension) wasn't working out!  For goodness sake, I had been knitting forever!  I know this stuff, and tension is perhaps the ONE thing that stays the same!  Turns out, I wasn't doing the right amount of yarn-overs to make the project loose enough to work on the next row.  So I managed to fix that, by re-reading the instructions.  Next, I tried all the stitch combinations (single, half-double, double, triple, slip stitch, etc.)  They all worked out well, though a little lopsided because I just tried them out one after another, unwilling to start from scratch for new stitches.  I AM a busy woman, after all!  Then, I made a flower.  First try was a disaster, because I didn't read the instructions properly.  Again.  But I took it apart, and started over, and now my boys are playing with my pretty purple flower, dipping it in yogurt and other fun stuff.  They like it, so whatever.

I'm happy I learned this long awaited new skill, and now (after a few more practice tries), I may be ready to add crochet projects to my very large list of order possibilities.  After I clean my house (told you I was busy!), I'm going to do some research, add crochet patterns, then work on my publisha magazine, for the October 2010 issue.  Be sure to catch it, it's sure to be awesome!

Oh, and thanks to whoever took the time to read this post, it was a biggie.  I really am very proud of myself for learning a new craft... Hope that part came through!

Originally posted on September 8th