My first crochet project is complete! I decided to teach myself to crochet a few weeks ago, and I started by practicing a few stitches, but quickly got bored because I wanted to actually make something. I used this tutorial with just a few modifications (I ended up somewhere between her two versions -- I think I chained about 125 to start and then I lost count of my rows and decided to just stop when I liked the way it looked). This consists of just the single crochet stitch, which was good because when I started this I still had NO idea what I was doing. This is quite evident when you look at the first few rows on the righthand side of the picture below. Yuck. But... we'll just ignore those, right?
Side note: I found this cute little rocking chair at a flea market in Detroit Lakes late last summer. It was a very fun day exploring and digging through old stuff with my friend Julie, and I walked away with several fun items. I'm already anxious for summer to arrive so I can go back!
But back to the scarf. I treated this project as practice, and even though it's not perfect, it's wearable. Most of the flaws are hidden when it's wrapped around my neck. This is probably a bit of wishful thinking on my part, but it could be worse! And my mom has already requested one, so I'll take that as a good sign.
I've been busy searching the web for other tutorials/projects and I've also started a pin board for my 'must-do' projects. Now that I've finished this scarf, I know I should go back and start at the beginning and practice and make some swatches of various stitches so that I actually know what I'm doing. Unfortunately my overall lack of patience may not allow that to happen!
I've mentioned this before, but I really do NOT need any more hobbies. So now is probably not the time to add that I also want to learn how to knit, and I just signed up for the beginner Knit Lab course on Craftsy. I discovered, not surprisingly, that learning to crochet from a book and pictures is a bit tricky. I had already signed up for a couple Craftsy sewing courses and I'm really enjoying them (more to come on that in the future, I'm sure) so I thought I'd give the knitting class a try. And actually watching someone knit and show you how to do it really helps (also not surprising). Only trouble is, now I want to sign up for a gardening Craftsy class... and a course about refinishing furniture. So far I've resisted the temptation, but it wasn't easy. And I should probably finish at least one of the courses that I'm already signed up for. Yes, that would be good.
Finally, last weekend I learned that my grandma didn't learn how to crochet until she was well into her 50s. She was the only member of my family with any crafty tendencies and she's the one who, as I described here, inspired me a few years ago to really jump into all this crafty business. Anyway, she was very, very good at crochet, and my two strongest images of her consist of her busily (and happily) cooking in her kitchen or sitting in her chair knitting or crocheting. I always assumed that she was a lifelong crocheter, so it was an unexpected and pleasant surprise to hear from my aunt that she didn't start until much later in her life. Proof that it is never too late to learn something new!
