That’s What I’m Talking About!!!

Those of you who are loyal readers (such as it is since I haven’t been posting very often … this thing called work really obliterates my time to knit and blog about it) know that I’ve been saying that I have to learn to crochet. Well, I think I have accomplished a few steps in that direction.

I have a dear knitting friend, Terri, who is an accomplished crocheter, a good knitter and she is the Queen of Nuno Felting. One evening at our Wild Rows gathering, I asked her to show me a Granny Square and she did. I practiced for a couple of days until it started to feel more natural. Now I have a collection of Granny Squares …. I had thought I would make an afghan but I think I will make a cover for my ottoman that lives in my atelier. Time will tell but the pile keeps growing.

Granny Squares

Then, my knitting group decided to make a baby blanket for one of our members. Terri reminded me that since it was to be a 12 x 12 inch square, it was a good way to practice more. This time we were asked to keep our squares to blues and/or browns.

12 x 12 inch Granny Square

And then I found this bag pattern somewhere in the blog-oshpere or on Facebook or Ravelry. The pattern is here. It’s not in American crochet terms, which, I have learned are different from English/European (?) crochet terms so beware. I marched right out to my local Joann Fabrics and buy some cheap-o yarn to give it a go. I’d never followed a crochet pattern before and I didn’t know what the stitches were called. I found a tutorial on YouTube and off I went. My first attempt is in the “use it another day” bin because it didn’t look right. The second attempt is pretty darned good … in my humble opinion!

I can even make a flower!

The bag … lying down.

I was very pleased with my little flowers! They were to hide the rather ugly join that I had to make to get the handles attached to the bag. I think next time I would make the handles part of the body of the bag and leave it at that. BUT I love the little flowers and am glad to know how to make them … and add a couple of leaves on a couple of the handles and this is what they look like! I think it will become a gift this Christmas … stay tuned!Another project in the finished pile and now I can use the yarn to make a sampler blanket (baby sized) and learn a few more crochet stitches. Yay!

Gone knitting!