Saturday 4 May 2013

Bitten by the Crochet bug

I never quite thought it would happen, but yes I have been bitten by the crochet bug! It's not that I haven't crocheted before because I have, but it never really amounted to very much. The skills didn't increase, the will didn't come and it was just set to one side as a lot of things are as you go through life (lets not even deal with the painting here as it takes up too much space).

As a child I could crochet the basic stitches (in UK terms) chain, double crochet, half treble crochet, treble crochet and so on, and although I loved the rhythm of the stitches as they were created I didn't feel able to create an actual item from them.

I'm not quite sure what happened recently, but it must be a mixture of looking for a simple project, needing to use up lots of stash before a house move and a couple of babies arriving on the scene. I sat down one weekend and started looking at crochet blankets!

If you're looking for crochet inspiration then look no further than Lucy at Attic24 who has fantastic tutorials, beautiful pictures and is so inspiring. I spotted her Granny Stripe blanket and knew I'd hit the spot! I had a quick look at the instructions, had a play around and realised quite quickly that I needed a bit of a refresher. After searching t'internet I found maybematilda.
Her crochet tutorials are great; simple, clear and perfect for me to follow. In fact I loved the blog altogether. With an hour or so of practice I was off and running and able to go back to Lucy's pattern and start, wee hee!





These are the first two. Cute and such good fun. Perfect pram sized, chuck on the floor snuggly baby sized blankets. I'm itching to hand them over but I'm ahead of the babies being born, so need to wait. Hmm, yes, wait? Now that's an interesting concept. No, what I normally do is just start another one! In my defence there are many reasons why:

I'm trying very hard to get my house ready to put on the market, this is a) Very hard work physically b) quite hard emotionally for lots of reasons and c) quite therapeutic. A strange mixture, but whatever way you shake it, it's tough and I need distraction in the evening when I'm too tired to do any more. Add to that the enormous amounts of coloured dk yarn that keeps emerging from my house whenever I start digging and you can start to see why I started the 'big one'. It's a stash buster 'honest guv'.......



There is a plan. I will need to have a double sofa bed at my next house for use during Uni holidays, and this is it's cover. Goodness me I'm loving it. Crocheting has a different action, so after knitting on the Relax for so long it's helping my shoulder which can get a bit sore with relentless stocking stitch. I think it's approaching a third done so moving on well and it will be my house warming present to myself :)


Hmmm, nice....

I'm linking up with the lovely Nicole of FrontierDreams today. So hop on over to see lots of inspiring projects. Happy Saturday x

13 comments:

  1. Hi Tracy, I came here from the Rav blogging group. I'm a big fan of Attic 24 myself; Lucy's designs are beautiful and they were what got me back into crocheting seriously after a long time away. Your granny stripes are beautiful! I have only made one granny stripe so far but it was very enjoyable to work on. I'm a new follower of your blog and looking forward to reading more. :)

    Jennifer
    http://thistlebearhome.blogspot.com

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    1. Hi Jennifer lovely to hear from you. I love your blog, just popped over to see you! The current blanket is just so enjoyable and great to work on when relaxing in the evening. I'm a bit of an intermittent blogger due to a full time job, 2 teenagers and trying to get my house ready to sell but I love it and keep trying to post when I can x

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  2. I learned the basic crochet stitches last year and, like you, can't imagine making something wearable. I've done scarves and blankets, though nothing as nice as yours. I'm looking forward to being hooked, but it hasn't happened yet!

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  3. I learned the basic crochet stitches last year and, like you, can't imagine making something wearable. I've done scarves and blankets, though nothing as nice as yours. I'm looking forward to being hooked, but it hasn't happened yet!

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    1. Go for a granny stripe Una, it'll have you hooked pretty quickly I'm sure x

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  4. I too have recently caught the bug and I'm loving it. Your blankets are gorgeous!

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    1. Thank you Katharine, more power to our crochet! x

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  5. The colors! Oh I love it! It does look like a good, calming project for such a hectic time. Good luck with all that! Thank you for linking that site for tutorials, I wish I had found it ages ago.

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    1. Oh thank you. I couldn't resist passing on the tutorials as they were so helpful. Thanks for the good wishes, all very exhausting but strangely therapeutic having a massive clearout x

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  6. Looking good and thank you for the tutorial links! My daughter is nuts about crochet and will love your FO!

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    1. Thank you for your comment. Perhaps you can get her crocheting one x

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  7. Tracy, thanks for your comment on my blog Too Many Hobbies about thumping people asking if you will move before Christmas - it made me laugh which is very welcome at this point! Best of luck with your move, hope it all goes much more smoothly than ours has done. Sharon

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  8. Awesome work.Just wanted to drop a comment and say I am new to your blog and really like what I am reading.Thanks for the share

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