Learning to Crochet

If anyone reading this has ever glanced at my instagram photos then you would know that over the last year or so I have taught myself to crochet.

I find it relaxing and almost meditative now, but it wasn't quite as simple to start...

Many an evening I struggled with youtube clips and various websites. How hard could it be to 'insert hook, yarn over and pull through'?? Well, let me tell you - it was!

So I shared a little of my struggle and attempts at learning the stitches one evening on instagram and got lots of little tips by some lovely people who knew what they were doing. Apparently it was all in the tension. Once I controlled that and also found a way that I was comfortable holding the yarn it just clicked. It probably took a couple of weeks of an hour or so in the evenings just practising lines of basic single, double and treble crochet. Add in a slip stitch and then half double and half crochet and I was away! That was once I worked out the US and UK crochet is different!

I was so impatient though...

I wanted to make something.

So I started to learn how to make granny squares. You know the ones - think '70s afghan throws in mustard, orange and brown!

What started off as a small granny square scarf morphed into a throw. Although I'm not sure that my confidence matched my ability at this point!

In hindsight, a smaller project would have been a little more realistic. These throws don't just appear overnight.

Anyhow, I was crocheting, albeit rather slowly and clumsily. It was true - it did get easier. Just being comfortable holding the crochet stick takes time. Knowing how tight or loose to hold the yarn in your hand, being able to twist the hook into and out of a stitch rather than holding it rigidly - none of this was natural.

My first throw took ages...and then some more!

I started and completed a very simple baby blanket in the middle of it. I left it untouched for a couple of months when I went overseas. But I kept going back to it and eventually it was done.

That feeling of satisfaction was pretty immense. Too right I was proud of myself!

I didn't follow a pattern (not my best move!) but I did use a great blog to guide me through a lot of it.

There is a delightful lady called Lucy who keeps a blog - ATTIC24
Lucy lives in Skipton in the Yorkshire Dales - the town I was lucky enough to call my home for 10 years. Apart from the gorgeous photos of the countryside that make me quite homesick, Lucy is an extremely generous soul who shares patterns, tutorials and general crochet tips.

Through her blog I learnt how to join the little granny squares as I went, rather than pile them up and then have to stitch then together, and I used the edging from one of her projects to finish off my throw.

I've made lots of Attic 24 projects since - daffodils for St David's day, flower brooches to sell at the school fete, quite a few stripy bags.

Sometimes my crochet is full of colour....

Other times it's a little more subdued...

But each piece gives a lot of self satisfaction when I see it coming together.

So if you're thinking of taking up a crafty hobby you could always try crochet - it's not just for grannies.

I'm definitely no expert, but I'm happy to share through this blog some of the basics and the things that I have learnt and some of the quick and easy things that I have made. I needed an easy, peasy, right back to the beginning' crochet lesson when I started and I gathered it from lots of different sources.

It's very satisfying making things for other people and I'm just about to post this creation off to Skipton.

It's for a project called Yarndale -  you can find out more HERE
I knew about Yarndale last year but didn't feel competent or confident enough to send through any crochet. I'm guessing (hoping) they're not after total perfection, so I'm contributing my little piece this time.

Right, things to do, places to go before school pick up,

Happy Tuesday,