Learning how to crochet

My great grandmother could crochet. She made the most intricate and delicate doilies and mats and dressed tiny dolls in beautiful outfits. She taught me how to do a chain, a double and a treble crochet but I never really picked up the skill.

I inherited all her old crochet patterns, needles, cottons and works in progress but they have been sitting in a box with no prospect of ever being even looked at. The fine work she did will, I fear, always be beyond me but, this past week or so I have finally given crochet a go.

To begin with I found a couple of needles and some cotton yarn and had a go at a granny square. I tried following patterns in a book, online tutorials and YouTube tutorials. Many squares were made and abandoned. I despaired of ever getting it right but then I made something that was reasonably presentable. I still hadn't mastered the pattern correctly but it looked ok.

I gained confidence and decided to try something a little more complex. Needless to say I have done little else over the past 2 weeks. I saw some star patterned blankets online and decided to have a go. I started and unravelled so many times but again, eventually, came up with something presentable.

Not prepared to cut my losses and run back to knitting I was determined to master something slightly more complex. A 12 point star blanket. I think it was probably a whole morning before I could get to the stage when I believed that it was going to work. Crochet could well become the new addiction and I read today in the newspaper that a crochet dress is the thing to have. Maybe not for me but I am clearly "on trend" as they say.

A batch of baby blankets

Go to wool shop, buy 5 balls of yarn from the sale basket, cast on 10 stitches, garter stitch 10 ridges, cast off, turn, pick up, repeat until wool runs out. Result:

Go to wool stash and select double knitting yarn in colours vaguely resembling Elmer the elephant. Make 20 mini log cabin squares. Join with 3 needle cast offs. Make borders. Result:

Hedgehogs, finishing off and looking back.

Yesterday had a certain poignancy. It was Valentine's Day and the dear husband actually splashed out on a card that wasn't buy one get one free or heavily reduced stock. We had a lovely lunch in a riverside pub with the pregnant daughter and her husband and then, being so close by, decided to try to pay a visit to an elderly sort of relative.

I'm not sure how old Ann is but I am guessing 80s. She was the second wife of my uncle, John, who was my father's best man at my parents' wedding. To complicate matters John wasn't his real name. He married my Dad's sister then they divorced and he married Ann then they divorced and he married again. We kept in touch over the years as he was the father of my cousin and, travelling to this part of the country frequently, we would sometimes call in to see them on the farm. 

I had last seen Ann at my uncle's funeral about 6 years ago and she is now rather frail but still has the most beautiful voice and is as sharp and bright as she ever was. I learned a great deal about wood burning stoves in our short visit, heard about a new place for Sunday lunch and the range of events that can be held in a village hall - very helpful.

The mind does tend to wander back though. This beautiful woman who is now confined to her home used to pilot a light aircraft. I took my husband to be to meet them some 30 odd years ago and they separately took us up in their little plane to fly across the amazing countryside around the Wye valley. I loved it but the fiancé was a little anxious going up in such a tiny aircraft with this lovely delicate woman whom he had only just met. She is a delight to know,

Back home it is a hive of activity. I am anxious to complete items of knitting for the new baby and to get on with so many outstanding projects. Spring is beckoning and the garden is more than beckoning for attention and it is time now to start to work on the house. The decorating which was needed when we moved in is still needed - that isn't going away and, to add to the work, the middlest child is buying her first house so work will be needed there. Retirement is fun.

Some completed projects:

New Year projects

A wonderful Christmas with all the family in our new home. This house suits family and Christmas so long as the younger members don't mind mattresses on the floor and uncomfortable, elderly sofa beds.

The new year brings nearer the prospect of a new grandchild, Masters degree graduations, a first real winter in the new house and the delights of getting to know our new neighbours better.

Knitting for the new baby carries on apace with so many works I progress that I have been forced to seriously organise my stash, the needles and knitting paraphernalia and the current projects. Only 3 projects allowed in the sitting room at any one time and everything else on show and easily accessible upstairs.

The weather has dictated the wearing of warm clothes and the production of warm hats.

There is also an ongoing project - hedgehogs for next Christmas!

Christmas decorative knitting

We are having a village Christmas Fayre and I have volunteered, with the help of a friend, to provide a centrepiece of knitted Christmas decorations. I have been having a lot of fun making simple garter stitch Christmas trees, small mittens, mini sweaters and little socks - with the odd bauble or owl thrown in for good measure.

The patterns have mostly been free ones readily available online with some from one of the Christmas knits books I bought recently. Standard acrylic double knitting wool already in stock has produced something which I think looks rather festive.

Miscellany

Overheard:

Actually a conversation in a hardware store where I was buying wellies for the eldest daughter. Young man - " I need wellies that I can run fast in" me - " do you normally run in wellies?" Young man - " yes, I need to chase my birds of prey"

Things I never bought before:

Roof felt for the shed where we keep straw for the hens and ducks.

Items of knitting finished:

Items of knitting started:

Christmas decorative mittens - see above and little jumpers.

Baby cardigans  x 2

Chunky chevron baby blanket - started but unravelled.

P.S. We have owls in the garden every night from dusk. They sound like a tape playing of the sound of owls. If you stand at the door and hoot at them they respond. I adore living here.

Startitis

I have had a bad case of startitis. For non knitters a basic explanation of this condition is starting a piece of knitting then another and another and never quite finishing any of them. It started with a baby blanket in a soft cotton double knitting. I had been making the same pattern in 4 ply and quite liked it. The double knitting, however, did not seem right. Then I found a pattern for a chunky baby blanket and had some delightful yarn that I had bought in our local Red Cross charity shop. I like the pattern, there is a cable - but I am finding it boring. Then I had a request for a child's log cabin in the colours of Elmer the elephant. That sounded fun so I started that. Making the log cabin squares I realised that if I made them the usual size it would detract  from the Elmer type pattern so I made a few smaller squares and then hesitated. In my box of favourite wools I had a selection of Bamboo cottons in various pastel shades. I had a pattern for a throw called Building Blocks and thought the Bamboo would be good for that - so I started the first square, made a mistake, unravelled it and put the pattern and yarn and needles in a box at my feet next to the sofa - where there is another similar box of chunky wool ready for me to make another Cowichan inspired child's jacket. I haven't casted on with this one, fortunately but I can see it tucked under the coffee table.

I think I want to knit something else - maybe a baby cardigan, maybe something for Christmas. However, yesterday I bought some fabric to make Christmas bunting so maybe this is the time to confess that I have a similar problem with sewing. Upstairs there is, cut out, a red linen top, some pretty floral bunting and a dress. Oh, and, of course, some knitted chickens which need to finished off, a few owls, a Snowdog and a fair isle sweater.