Crochet

I grew up with a Grandmother who crocheted.  She would make beautiful crafts and blankets for everyone she knew.  Although she lived to be 102 I never learned how to crochet while she was alive.  So two years ago I decided it was time to learn.  I went to Michaels and bought these two books.

The "Crochet made easy" book was only a couple of dollars and I found it in the yarn aisle.  The other book had the perfect title...First Crochet.  My mom gave me my Grandmother's crochet needles and to work I went with my book.  Honestly the basic crochet stitches are much easier than I would have ever thought.  At first I held the crochet needle really tightly and my hand would be exhausted after crocheting only a little while.  Once I learned how to hold the crochet needle comfortably I was good to go.  For some reason, this seems to be a winter activity for me.  So although I taught myself two years ago, I only seem to crochet in the cold weather months.  Since it's only 19 degrees here in New York, I've pulled out my crochet needles again.

The granny square is a crochet technique where you produce square fabric by working in rounds from the center outward.  What I like about granny squares is you can just keep working in the round until you get the "fabric" as large as you'd like it.  You can continue in the round until you make a large blanket.  I have been working on this one for a while (mostly because I keep dropping this project to work on other smaller crochet projects).

You can also use a granny square to make a pillow.

I made the pillow using grey yarn and making a granny square large enough to fit my pillow insert.  Then I made a different type of granny square in the pink yarn.  Finally I crocheted a very easy rosette for the top of the pillow.  I sewed all four sides using the same grey yarn.  (The blanket behind was crocheted by my Grandmother).

Then last winter I wanted to make an outfit for my daughter's American Girl doll.  I thought it would be great to crochet her one.  I googled "free crochet patterns" and a ton of sites come up.  There are so many free crochet patterns out there.  They are usually labelled beginner, intermediate, or advanced (I'm still on the beginner side heading toward intermediate).  I found a dress pattern that I thought I could handle.

How cute did this dress come out?  I couldn't believe how little time it took to make this dress...less time that the pillow above.  I just followed the directions and next thing I knew it came out looking like this.  I made a button loop and sewed on a button to close the dress at the top on the back.  I love the little ruffle crochet detail at the bottom.

I know there are so many crafty people out there in blogland.  If you haven't tried crochet, you really should.  It's relaxing plus it gives you another way to express yourself creatively.  Do you crochet?  I'd love to hear from you on what you think of these crochet projects.

-Judy