Tying Knots in Yarn with Sticks...

Today I decided to learn to crochet. About five minutes after I started trying to learn I had this awful flashback to when I started learning to knit and learned to cast on and to knit fine, but then got stuck and just couldn't learn to purl. For a year. All I could do was knit. In straight lines. Because I still have a phobia of circular needles I haven't yet overcome. I had this awful feeling I was going to be able to do the chain stitch and then not be able to work out how to actually crochet.

However, I think I'm gradually getting there. It struck me when I was learning to knit (and at times ending up with so much yarn wrapped around my fingers that my fingers had basically become part of the knitting) that knitting was pretty much just tying knots in wool with sticks. Crochet is this, but even more elaborate knots. 

my first attempt at actually crocheting a row

 

 

I'm learning (or attempting to) from The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller, because her knitting book, Stitch 'n Bitch is responsible for my knitting so I figured I could blame her for my crochet too. That way when my husband moans (which he actually never does. He just looks at me when I buy more craft stuff) I can tell him it's not my fault, it's Debbie Stoller's. Her books always have awesome patterns in them that I just must make immediately.

 

The real reason I wanted to learn to crochet, despite the fact that I have a craft fair that I still have to make a ton of stuff for, was that I hate feeling limited, and whenever I'm on Ravelry looking for things to make for my family I hate that almost half the patterns on there aren't available to me because I don't have the necessary skills. I figured if I can tie knots in yarn with knitting needles, I can probably do it with a hook, and actually despite a teenage hatred of the textiles room at school, I have more than slightly fallen in love with textile art.

 

I also want to take up making Rag Rugs.