Crochet That

Here is a picture of me sporting my slouchy beanie!

At the moment I cannot seem (seam?!) to get enough of learning new crafts. I've no idea whether it is my age, or my creativity spilling over into life, but whenever I see a new thing to try, I think - I'll have some of that!

My latest attempt at making is crochet. I must admit I bought a set of crochet hooks some time ago  but whenever I would do tutorials I just could not get the hang of the stitches, then when I did straight pieces would come out wonky.

One day a colleague came in to work with a blanket she was crocheting and it looked amazing, I was so jealous I decided to give it another shot. I looked up tutorials and found some really straight forward, simple ones by Melanie Ham on Youtube.

Following Melanie's tutorial made me wonder why I'd found crochet so difficult in the past. In hindsight I think it was learning a granny square first that caused problems, I think it was much better to learn straight stitching like this scarf.

This is one of my earlier pieces following a tutorial from Yolanda on Youtube, was impressed with my ribbing action!

After I'd done a few scarves, I went onto making beanie hats and then granny squares. And now I wonder why I ever found it difficult!

There are so many tutorials around, and the patterns themselves can be a learning curve. I live in the UK and we have different terms for the stitches to American's, which can make it confusing, but there are plenty of conversion charts around, so once you know, you know.

Crochet is traditionally seen as something older people do but that just isnt the case these days. While there are lots of patterns that would attract an older audience, there are so many funky, creative, contemporary patterns out there too, and this is what attracts me. I generally like bold, statement pieces (whether clothes, jewellery etc) and so I lean towards this.

I am currently learning to crochet some trelis socks! I have just completed a slouchy beanie and am about to embark on a wavy baby blanket.

Went shopping for wool and found a book with a directory of 200 crochet stitches, can't wait to learn them all!

What crochet are you working on? What's your favourite craft?