Happy Christmas!!

Happy celebrations to one and all

Dispelling the first two myths about crochetting.

The first myth to dispel is that you can make stuff other than doilies
The second is that there is something out there than granny squares (Dont know what they are? they are those squares you see on 70s stuff..)

Crochet does not have to look like something your gran did before your mother was born, crochet does not have to be tablewear nor does it have to look like you're back in the 70s.. Well, unless you want it to.

Colour is a firm part of this, if you do orange centered brown squares.. you're gonna look like you're in the 70s, almost no matter what you do. However, this shows something that looks like it was bought in a store this year. Although I made it to fit me so I'd guess you could probably use it as a curtain really :)

Ive made 2 baby blankets recently, crochet is commonly used for this as for some reason, for those who have knitted, crochet seems easier to do faster, although I would hasten to say knitting is easier to do with your eyes shut! Swings and roundabouts there, however..

Baby blanket 1
Baby blanket 2

The first was made using granny squares, so each coloured square was made individually and then sewen together at the end, the second was worked in rows, it doesnt look like I know. However, each of the diamond shapes colours is a row, it worked up very fast, and was very pretty when finished, it was a shame to part with. However, Alexis is its proud new owner and what counts is him and his parents love it. The stitch used there appears to have many names, but its just a combination of 2 stitches, yet it comes out very well I think. Theres a similar stitch to it which is worked in diagonals which is slightly fussier to make but the end result is something very similar, so it depends what you're making as to which you'd do.

In the beginning

Everyone starts crochet, and next to nobody does anything other than make a huge mess and wonder how its done. The sad truth is very quickly you realise its not necessarily hard its just concentration that divides success from disaster.

Anything complicated in crochet is made of one of the simple stitches. Its a little like learning maths, when you learn maths you learn to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Then you realise actually in a way, you only need add. Why? Well if you add a negative number, you subtract, if you multiply you add something a repeated number of times, and to divde, well in argument you add a negative number until you end up unable to remove any more.. in essense, its all add.

Crochets a lot like that. You poke your hook in somewhere, you wind your yarn round it, those are the only 2 things you need to know, however, when, how much and so on, is what makes the difference.

So. What can you hope to see coming here? Well I'll try and run through the basic stitches, to explain how to read some patterns, give you some ideas of some simple things to make and some ideas on mistakes I made and how you stop doing them.