My Crochet Diary

I usually see my summer holiday as a great opportunity for, yes you've guessed it, knitting. But this year the special holiday request from hubby was "no knitting". I guess a vacation is meant to be a break from the norm, so was I cheating when I agreed to the no knitting, but decided to use this time to try my long talked about ambition to teach myself to crochet.

So I rather proudly present my first ever piece of crochet. Now I think I may be feeling a bit like the kids in my knitting club when they have completed their first bit of knitting. I am going to try and do a series of posts on my attempts to learn to crochet, so you might want to follow my progress.

I would really appreciate any advice from experienced crochetters (is that even a word). Easy patterns, or books that I can understand would be useful. These are the only books I have. The two books are both fairly old - I think my mum gave them to me. I look at the amazing variety of stitches, but I think I need a much more basic book with some practical projects, as these are just a bit overwhelming.

So I started by borrowing my daughter's Cath Kidson's kit. It's aimed at kids, so surely it can't be too hard, I thought, but soon realised that the instructions to make a granny square cushion were way beyond me. So thinking of how I teach knitters, I decided to just make a square, and think I have learned the doublechain and treblechain. Although even that is a bit confusing, as there seems to be a half treble chain, double treble and treble treble!!! After a bit I did find it quite relaxing, and got into a bit of a rhythm. There are a few mistakes, and the things I found difficult is to judge where to put the hook in, and also turning at the edge of each row. (In knitting it is really obvious if you have gone wrong as you can just do a stitch count.) I got a bit fancy at the end and had a go at a scallop edge, which I think would have worked if I had had a longer edge and could have kept going. 

What I think I am doing wrong is that I am thinking like a knitter, so I felt fairly happy to crochet with rows going back and forth. But I want to make some of those cute amigurumi that I see, and for that I think I need to go in a circle. The other thing I find confusing are the patterns I have seen that are diagrams. Beautiful series of squiggles and shapes, but no idea at all how I would follow one.

This was my only attempt at a little circle. I was just going in each stitch twice. Seemed to work, and I think I have made a little hat.

I just can't decide who it looks best on ....

That is all for now ... but there will be another crochet post soon. As I said I would really welcome any pointers to easy patterns or books that have some very easy projects to try.