Riot and Frolic

Crochet.

I've done a bit of it, apparently.  I started on a whim a couple years ago, at the start of my Craft Age.  I picked up the book  The Happy Hooker, written by Debbie Stoller of Stitch 'n' Bitch fame and BUST magazine at the ol' B&N and got tangled up in some yarn for a few hours.  

I'm not usually a very good book-learner.  But I was determined.  So with my plain, grey, acrylic yarn from the lovely, but pricey Yarnery, I got my borrowed (thanks, Ma!) hook and started loopin'.  Maybe there was wine involved.  Maybe not.  I quite literally read and looped along with that book, until I had tried:

chain stitches

single/double/triple/half-double (no, Gordon, it's not the same as a single)/double-triple/triple-triple (no, I'm not making this up) crochet

slip stitches

making shells, Vs, mesh, bobbles, puffs, popcorn, picot, and fishnet (yeah, I could make my own fishnet tights, but no, I won't)

going around the post in the front and the back

turning a circle

making some filet (not fish)

to figure why my swatch was becoming a trapezoid (it was YOU, turning chain!)

making a granny square.  Imagine this in grey:

and torn more than a few rows out.

Then I was good.  Well, fair.  My friend showed up a few days later and was crazy-faster than me because she held the yarn (I almost wrote "string"- ha!) differently and, clearly, better than I did.  After a year, I was able to hold the string like "they" tell you to, but I did a lot of work with my non-hooking fingers to get loops over other loops and whatnot.

Here's a glimpse into my collection after three years or so:

These mini-scarves are called pidges.  Neck scarf?  Not really a cowl, but great for chilly offices and just looking cool. These were actually all gifts and had some nifty "post work" going on.  The second one is a basket weave. Oooooo.  I know.

Hats are fun, as I like working in a circle.  Again, all gifties.  A felted flower on the left one!  Putsy!  The middle one was for my one-year-old baldy girl baby after her daddy got her all Chicago-Bears'ed-up and everyone thought she was a boy.  Ignore the crazy model on the right.  

Then: forays into bags and an actual scarf.  Patterns are a… fun thing to learn how to read.  Maybe there should be wine involved.

This was my latest creation- a little rug for the ladies' room.  It's pretty sweet.  I'll tell you how to make it tomorrow!

Entourage!- Michael Scott