Poncho and cap "sanity check" projects
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
In The Beginning. . .
It's hard to say how long I have been crocheting....I started by watching my mom when I was quite young (hence the blog name "Next Generation Crocheter"). My mom always said it was cheaper than a "shrink". Having three kids in 5 years (not uncommon during that time period - early 60's) and now having two of my own only 3 1/2 years apart I understand her comment! :-) So I watched as she crocheted, sewed, needle pointed, counted cross stitched....she did it all! And at one time or another so did I thanks to her. I've gone thru periods of each craft. I don't know when I learned each so I'll take a rough guess at 7 years old being the genesis of my craft-hood. I don't remember ever finishing a crochet project when I was young. I have memories of odd shaped pieces with miscounted rows but nothing in my mind's eye is complete. I have vague memories of my mom explaining how to read a pattern - or at least the abbreviations for stitches. So that is the old testament of my crocheting days....and just as in the Bible there is quite a long time between the end of the Old and the beginning of the New.....
So on to the new testament of my crochet-hood. About 5 years ago my sister-in-law knitted our kids each an afghan. Mom never knit anything as far as I knew so the concept of *knitting* an afghan seemed absurd to me! I knew a bit about the craft; tried to teach myself when I was about 12 I think but failed miserably. So my thought pattern started with "how on earth can you make something 45 inches wide on a knitting needle that's 12 inches long?" Preposterous!!! So I asked mom and she told me about circular needles. Aahhhh! After seeing the afghans Deb sent I got over my "hysteria" of knitting afghans but still remained a "crochet snob". As a gesture of good-will and thanks, I decided to make Deb an afghan. I had a grand idea for one in my head - who needs patterns?! So I bought a book of stitches, a full set of aluminum hooks (because this was going to be the first of many projects coming and I needed to be prepared) and I think 6 balls of yarn (LionBrand woolease sportweight, in a wheat/confetti-ish color) - "that should be plenty and I'll probably have some left over." I decided that since I was quite out of practice, I would stick with a simple single crochet, making strips about 6 inches wide that I would sew together. I had no idea how big it should be so I thought I would make a strip with a ball of yarn and then go buy enough balls to make it wide enough...one ball one strip...sounded pretty simple, right? Yeah, right! Remember the odd-shaped pieces I mentioned earlier? Well the first 10 rows turned into a slightly askew triangle of sorts so I decided to actually LOOK at the book of stitches I purchased and saw that I was supposed to do an extra chain at the end of each row....rrriiiipppp. I finally got to the end of the ball of yarn with a relatively straight piece. I brought it to mom's one weekend and she almost, but not quite, gasped about me doing it in sc stitches. That didn't bother me, it was a nice piece so far; the yarn was soft it didn't feel THAT heavy. However after one ball of yarn it was only about half the length I imagined so I went and bought 7 more balls - two for each strip and I would have to put it together with something. So I finished the strip. Then life with my second child along with work got to be more than enough so it all got put into a Jo-Ann's bag never to be started again. I eventually ripped it all out and keep the yarn for making test swatches of new stitches I find.
Three years went by without even thinking of the craft, then I decided I wanted to make my daughter a pair of slippers for Christmas 2004. I didn't have a pattern, had no idea how much yarn I would need but I was determined. A lady I worked with was always knitting something (usually socks) and she also crocheted so I asked her advice. We went to Hobby Lobby one lunch break and I bought two skeins of Caron Simply Soft (pastel variegated) 3oz each I dug out my crochet hooks, still at the bottom of the bag of yarn! I stared at them. Then I had the brilliant idea to look on the internet for a pattern, maybe I could find something....Boy, did I. Once again overwhelmed, I called mom. I emailed her some of the patterns I found and asked her advice on what I might be able to finish in about a month's time. Mom was great!! She looked at the patterns, gave me good solid advice based on my level of skill and time and also looked thru her books and magazines and found a pattern (that I ended up using), scanned it and emailed it back. To shorten the rest of the story, my foray back into crocheting was successful (I finished the slippers in plenty of time), I called my mom with enough questions that it seemed to re-ignite her interest in the craft and the woman at work took the opportunity to teach two of our team mates to knit and we did it together at lunch as often as we could. Mom is still crocheting (again) currently making premie hats for a nearby hospital, Ray is still knitting scarves for his teddy bear collection and grandma and I crocheted a doily for the knitting lady (sorry, her name escapes me!) when her contract ended and she left the company. I can't tell you off the top of my head how many things I have made since those slippers but I will touch on them I'm sure in future posts. I love to crochet and mom was definitely right, it's cheaper than a "shrink"! :-) Until next time....God Bless your stitches.
So on to the new testament of my crochet-hood. About 5 years ago my sister-in-law knitted our kids each an afghan. Mom never knit anything as far as I knew so the concept of *knitting* an afghan seemed absurd to me! I knew a bit about the craft; tried to teach myself when I was about 12 I think but failed miserably. So my thought pattern started with "how on earth can you make something 45 inches wide on a knitting needle that's 12 inches long?" Preposterous!!! So I asked mom and she told me about circular needles. Aahhhh! After seeing the afghans Deb sent I got over my "hysteria" of knitting afghans but still remained a "crochet snob". As a gesture of good-will and thanks, I decided to make Deb an afghan. I had a grand idea for one in my head - who needs patterns?! So I bought a book of stitches, a full set of aluminum hooks (because this was going to be the first of many projects coming and I needed to be prepared) and I think 6 balls of yarn (LionBrand woolease sportweight, in a wheat/confetti-ish color) - "that should be plenty and I'll probably have some left over." I decided that since I was quite out of practice, I would stick with a simple single crochet, making strips about 6 inches wide that I would sew together. I had no idea how big it should be so I thought I would make a strip with a ball of yarn and then go buy enough balls to make it wide enough...one ball one strip...sounded pretty simple, right? Yeah, right! Remember the odd-shaped pieces I mentioned earlier? Well the first 10 rows turned into a slightly askew triangle of sorts so I decided to actually LOOK at the book of stitches I purchased and saw that I was supposed to do an extra chain at the end of each row....rrriiiipppp. I finally got to the end of the ball of yarn with a relatively straight piece. I brought it to mom's one weekend and she almost, but not quite, gasped about me doing it in sc stitches. That didn't bother me, it was a nice piece so far; the yarn was soft it didn't feel THAT heavy. However after one ball of yarn it was only about half the length I imagined so I went and bought 7 more balls - two for each strip and I would have to put it together with something. So I finished the strip. Then life with my second child along with work got to be more than enough so it all got put into a Jo-Ann's bag never to be started again. I eventually ripped it all out and keep the yarn for making test swatches of new stitches I find.
Three years went by without even thinking of the craft, then I decided I wanted to make my daughter a pair of slippers for Christmas 2004. I didn't have a pattern, had no idea how much yarn I would need but I was determined. A lady I worked with was always knitting something (usually socks) and she also crocheted so I asked her advice. We went to Hobby Lobby one lunch break and I bought two skeins of Caron Simply Soft (pastel variegated) 3oz each I dug out my crochet hooks, still at the bottom of the bag of yarn! I stared at them. Then I had the brilliant idea to look on the internet for a pattern, maybe I could find something....Boy, did I. Once again overwhelmed, I called mom. I emailed her some of the patterns I found and asked her advice on what I might be able to finish in about a month's time. Mom was great!! She looked at the patterns, gave me good solid advice based on my level of skill and time and also looked thru her books and magazines and found a pattern (that I ended up using), scanned it and emailed it back. To shorten the rest of the story, my foray back into crocheting was successful (I finished the slippers in plenty of time), I called my mom with enough questions that it seemed to re-ignite her interest in the craft and the woman at work took the opportunity to teach two of our team mates to knit and we did it together at lunch as often as we could. Mom is still crocheting (again) currently making premie hats for a nearby hospital, Ray is still knitting scarves for his teddy bear collection and grandma and I crocheted a doily for the knitting lady (sorry, her name escapes me!) when her contract ended and she left the company. I can't tell you off the top of my head how many things I have made since those slippers but I will touch on them I'm sure in future posts. I love to crochet and mom was definitely right, it's cheaper than a "shrink"! :-) Until next time....God Bless your stitches.
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