crochet – Page 9 – Polgara.net: The Official Website

As of today’s lunch hour, this is how far I’ve gotten with the crochet blanket, started Saturday, February 24th. Sadly, the white isn’t pure white, but a baby yarn that includes blends of pink and blue separated by stretches of white; otherwise it would be a pretty close approximation of the colors of the Irish flag. I’m thinking of switching to a double-crochet stitch once I finish this last stripe of white–I believe I’ve mastered the single crochet, so it’s time to move on to something new.

I’m enjoying crochet so far, but I don’t like how eyes-on it is–with knitting, I can afford to look up much more frequently than I can with the crocheting. Makes it much harder to watch tv while crocheting, which was always one of the plusses to knitting.

And speaking of knitting, this is a picture of a purse that’s waiting to be felted. I started out following a pattern I found online, but I quickly realized I wasn’t going to have enough yarn, so I veered away to something slightly different. No clue how the final product will turn out, but mostly I’m hoping the slightly ruffled edge will look ok.

Crochet–7 days and counting

So last Thursday, I started jury duty. Knitting needles were not allowed, so I brought a book, a Sudoku book, a computer. Nothing really satisfying.

I was put into jury selection for one trial–a murder trial, so selecting the jury took a really long time. I had to go back on Friday, and they neither excused me, nor finished picking the jury, so I had to go back on Monday. My diversionary tactics weren’t working–I’d become accustomed to knitting while waiting, and I missed that sense of accomplishment. So, Saturday, I got out my Plymouth Encore and two “learn to crochet” books that had failed to sink in on previous occasions, and with a project in mind, I set about to learn to crochet.

I spent about four hours on Saturday and five or six hours on Sunday working on a single crochet log cabin blanket. I’d seen the knitting pattern in Mason-Dixon Knitting and figured it couldn’t be that hard to adapt it to crochet, and I was right. Sadly, it’s slow going, perhaps because of the single crochet stitch (I prefer to learn one stitch at a time, same way I learned how to knit), and most certainly not helped by my naturally tight stitching. My hands keep cramping up from being forced into these new positions. I also think part of it is the crochet hook I’m using. It’s exactly the size that’s recommended for the Encore, but I forgot that when I’m knitting, I prefer to go about two sizes up because I knit so tight, and what do you know, turns out I crochet tight too.

But it’s turning out pretty well–it’s already bigger than this picture I took on Monday. It was the perfect project for waiting in courthouse hallways, so of course I was excused from the jury at 11:30am Monday. That’s quite alright, though, ’cause now I’ve finally made a dent in the “learn to crochet” resolution I made about two New Years ago.