First Foray Into Crochet

Four years ago I joined ravelry and learned how to knit very basic scarves. I looked for patterns to inspire me to stick at it, but everything I liked most, turned out to be crochet projects, not knitting. I got into other things like birthwork, cross stitch and clarinet, and I've stayed at the basic scarf (with help for casting off lol) stage of my yarn craft until recently. About a year ago, I stayed at a friend's place in the country and she decided she would teach me to crochet. Knowing I'm a sooky pain in the arse when it comes to learning textiley things, I got myself a set of rainbow hooks to inspire myself to see the sookiness through.

 

Yarny crafts really impress me. It absolutely spins me out that a ball of yarn can become something else, it's magic. So, when my ball of yarn was starting to become something else I was very excited:

For my very first crochet project my friend selected the Uterus Menstrual Cup Cozy. It's a little draw-string bag shaped like a uterus, tubes and frongs just big enough to store a menstrual cup. Perfect timing too, coz I'd just got my menstrual cups and was very excited about the whole thing :)

This is what the project looks like when it's complete (with a cup next to it to show you the size and what it's storing:

The completed project above is not mine! That's the one my friend made and gifted me :) This is mine while it was a WIP (and when it looked like it still might turn out just right hahaha):

And *drumroll please Mr Kaloper* my first completed crochet project, my uterus menstrual cup cozy:

 

It's not a healthy looking uterus ;) but it can hold a cup. Looks far more Monsanto strawberry to me (should've done the top parts in green!).

Next I started learning how to crochet a beanie, ut ended up shelving it for a while when I couldn't work out what I was doing wrong with my magic circles:

Magic in the sense that it looks like I was on magic mushrooms when I crocheted it

But aforementioned friend stayed over and helped me lick the circle. Following that, I spent the latter parts of my nights going round and round, hoping for the best.

I <3 how I can take crochet anywhere

Everything seemed to be going okay...

 

Until it wasn't...

I unraveled the whole thing when I realised it was too big even for Huz's boofhead. I gave up on crochet yet again, exasperated and convinced that yarn and I simply do not mix. Until last month, when my five year old wanted to play with knitting needles and hooks and yarn, so I dusted them off and felt re-inspired.

This time I decided to make my second project a little less ambitious than a beanie. Instead I took the advice of another friend who had made her kids a big striped crochet blanket using a single stitch over and over and over and over ad infinite. And this time I had success!

Five year old was so enthusiastic and supportive of my new project (even before I'd started and was just buying the yarn, lol) that I suggested it should be a blanket for her. She is so delighted with this plan. She regularly checks in to see how I'm going and to marvel at how lovely she thinks her evolving blanket. It's just the most lovely thing to share the creative journey with the recipient, and rare too! Usually hand making gifts for others is shrouded in secrecy until their birthday, or whatevs.

I found myself totally hooked on crochet. Within a few days I was learning how to change colours and weave my ends in as I stitched along (thanks to the help of youtube):

I was immensely proud of myself. Yarn no longer alluded me ;) And this inspired me to try another yarny project: the granny square. But I shall save the tale of the granny squares for another post, dear reader.