crochet October 5, 2011 – Posted in: Crafts, Family

When my Grandpa was in the hospital, I felt very restless. There wasn’t anything I could do for him, but I needed to stay busy to keep from dwelling on the situation. When I sit at my sewing machine, my mind wanders and I do great brainstorming. But for those 2 weeks every time I sat down I found myself crying minutes later. I preferred to lose myself in tv, but then my hands were anxious to do something.

A few years ago I’d tried to teach myself to crochet so I could make a cute little toy for Sofie. It ended disastrously and I packed my yarn and crochet hooks away. But, I decided, this might be the right time to break them out and try again. That first night I made this hat!

I followed along with a really helpful tutorial on YouTube.

To figure out how to do each stitch, I preferred the video tutorials by The Knit Witch (scroll to the bottom of her videos to find the basic crochet, double crochet, etc).

Once I finished the hat, I decided to try my first written tutorial. Why not jump in with both feet, right? So I made a little flower to put on my hat.

Imagine my delight when it fit Chloe perfectly!

After that, I was hooked. (pun intended!) I started finding other patterns to follow and was crocheting a hat a day. I loved learning a new craft, especially one I adored so much, and it kept my hands busy during the saddest period in my life. Next I made a few hats for Ella, but they’re all still too big for her, so I’ll show them off in the coming months.

Then I tried one with a brim for one of my nieces. But since I was still new to the art and figuring out gauge and yarn size, it came out a LOT bigger than I’d expected!

As you can see, it swallowed Sofie’s head whole! So I gave it to my sister instead of her daughter!

Then Grandpa died and I completely stopped crocheting. I’m not sure why I stopped, but I just didn’t want to do it anymore. But a few weeks ago, realizing Ella was about to be here, I picked up my hooks and got busy again. I fell over myself when I found this capelet and knew Sofie just had to have it. It’s big on her, but that just means she’ll get lots of use from it!

                          

I think this is the only thing that excites me about the weather getting colder. I’m eager to try out some new patterns I’ve found and maybe make some of my own! I think my family might all wind up with something crocheted in their Christmas gifts this year!