Bagging it

I keep getting told that as a new crocheter I should be making pot holders.  Huh? Er ok. But anybody that knows me, knows I like  the challenge of learning a new craft in the most difficult way I can.   So after  I had a few stitches under my belt, I made a couple of scarves and moved on to hats.

Then lo and behold, I found Ralvery. Ravely really should have come with flashing lights and sirens screeching "Danger Will Robinson.  Danger Will Robinson!"  I do believe I suffered from fiber overload on that first day searching around the site.  (BTW...you need an account to view the contents of the site. It's free and well worth it...but be warned...you can easily become addicted.)

After searching through 50 billion projects and adding about 25 billion to my favorites, I decided to do a Market Bag from Lion Brand Yarn.   I've got 20 balls of Sugar 'n Cream Yarn, so it was perfect for this project.   

Lion Brand's patterns are relatively easy to read.  (Whooo..that's another aspect of this thing.  Reading and interpreting patterns. And following them....let's not forget that.)  I did make some mistakes along the way with the Market Bag, but was able to adjust without having to pull all the stitches out. The handles gave me some problems. But I figured out what I was doing wrong.  So the next one will be easier. 

I'm proud of my bag. It's already busy holding part of my quickly growing yarn stash.

The thick and chunky cowl

I completed my first....no second  project (forgot about the 1st scarf...will blog about that later.).....YEA!  I was impressed with myself, it only took about 2 hours for me to complete this.

Lion Brand Cowl

I love Lion Brand's Wool-Ease Thick & Quick yarn. It's all thick and warm and cuddly.

(side note:  I still love my Steelers.  We'll get #7 next year!)

For the love of Yarn

Oh dear...I  made the mistake of walking down the yarn isle in the craft stores.  I've always wanted to learn to knit and crochet but put it on the back burner.  Wait, eons ago I did learn to crochet in the Girl Scouts...I think...must do something about those memory lapses.  Anyway, any stitches I'd learn have been lost in the recesses of my mind amongst the other 50 kabillion crafts I dabble in.  No wait...that was macramé that I learned. Really must do something about the lapses. :)

Well, back to the craft store. I really was only looking for a large yarn needle to repair a bag I've had for some years.  I looked around and saw all these beautiful yarns and the seed was planted in the back of my mind.  Fast forward a few months and I was on etsy and saw a seller making customer crocheted sweaters. But when I saw the $300 price tag...my muse said uh-uh...you can learn to do that yourself.

(I must interject, being a crafter I never gripe about what others charge for their crafts. I understand and appreciate the time and effort it takes to create. That said, I need to give this a go myself before considering paying that kind of money for a sweater....no matter how beautiful it was.)

So of course this lead me to be on-line looking up tutorials, watching youtube videos and digging through craft supplies, because I was sure I had some crochet hooks somewhere. Ah-ha...I had a full set.  Now armed with coupons, tutorials, new books (sigh...I know I already own a small craft library...but I just LOOOOVE books) I headed to the craft stores.

You know how you should not go to the grocery store hungry or without a list...the same applies to a craft store.  I don't even wanna get into that one...moving on with all my newly acquired yarn.

So sitting down, I grabbed my hooks, yarn, books and parked in front of the computer screen and proceeded  to learn the basic stitches.  So far so good.  I've got to work on tension, but I'm told that will come in time.

Right now, I'm only working on Crochet....I'm not sure I should have a deadly pair of knitting needles in my hands.  Maybe in a few months, I'll start looking at the basics on knitting.

But in the meantime I'm happily hooking away!