I'm still not feeling very well so this is where I have spent a lot of my day...
....curled up on the sofa with comfy quilts and cushions while attempting to teach myself how to crochet
properly. I bought
this book a couple of years ago and saw a pattern for a bag in here which I really liked but try as I might, I couldn't get my head around the instuctions :( Fast forward a couple of years and everywhere I look in blogland, such as
here,
here and
here, everyone is 'hooking' like mad and producing the most wonderful throws and blankets. After suffering from a serious case of crochet envy, I could feel my fingers itching to take up a hook and give it another go so I bought myself "
The Happy Hooker" and oh my goodness that book is fabulous! I must admit, some of the projects are not quite my "thing" but the instructions are so clear and easy to understand (once I'd got my head around the different terminology - why do British and US terms have to be different?!?)
Anyway, over the last few weeks I have been coveting the blankets I have been seeing and have grand plans to make myself one of my own. However, before I rushed out and spent pots of money on lots of lovely, soft, snuggly yarns, I thought it would be prudent to hone my newfound skills on something smaller and, crucially, something I already had yarn for!!!
With this in mind, I went back to the bag pattern I had very first attempted to do more than 2 years ago and now I actually have more of an idea what I am doing, I have made good progress with it this afternoon :)
Shush, don't mention it to Mr P but I have just won an auction on Ebay for a mixed lot of 48 different balls of yarn - already my crocheting is turning into a bit of an obsession... However, as these haven't started winging their way to me, I've had to make do with itchy, scratchy, acrylic yarn. Please tell me that other yarns are nicer to crochet with because after a while this one hurt my fingers!
The pattern uses 18 of these squares and I have completed all my pink ones this afternoon and made a start on 3 more squares. I have to say, crochet is one of the most relaxing things in the world; I have spent a lovely afternoon snuggled under my quilt, hook in hand, listening to podcasts from CraftSanity:
Alicia Paulson from Posy Gets Cozy and
Amy Karol from Angry Chicken and very inspiring they were too! Mr P said that my crocheting was "very ratter-esque" but he was watching the golf at the time (quite possibly
the most boring 'sport' in the world. Ever. Officially) so I am going to discount his opinion on this matter ;)
Just 9 and a bit more squares more to go and then I need to make the handles and crochet round the top. I'll try and do a bit more tonight but probably won't get chance to do much more during the week as I'll be in work.
One last close up of the crochet and then I'm off to break the news to Mr P about the deliveries (did I mention I won more than 1 auction? Ooops!) from Ebay we will be having in the next few days...
Oh before I go,can anyone give me any tips on uploading pictures to blogger? It's taken me almost as long to upload these 3 pictures as it did to crochet my squares!
