happy hooker

[deird1]

My adventures in crochet continue...

1) Finally gave in and joined Ravelry, like all the cool kids.

2) Have done two scarfs, and most of a cushion. Which sounds utterly awesome, until I realise that my entire crocheting accomplishments are basically making rectangles. Very neat and even rectangles, to be sure, but still - rectangles. In my latest rectangles I have started changing colours...

3) I keep seeing patterns that are utterly brilliant and absolutely what I want to do... when I'm fifty times as competent as I am right now.

4) Wool is way too expensive. Had to leave my LYS at a run today, to avoid buying lots of pretty wool that I absolutely don't need yet.

5) Four people have come up to me and said "Oh, wow, what are you knitting?" in the last two weeks. I'm getting rather sick of pointing out that I'm holding a crochet hook and not knitting needles.

6) All those people out there who reckon knitting is way cooler than crochet have no idea what they're talking about. Crochet is not just about the granny squares, yo.

7) Someday soon, I'm going to have to learn granny squares. And I will instantly feel uncool and frumpy, and sit there sheepishly hooking my granny squares and hoping no-one notices. But whatcha gonna do - there's no way I can get good at crochet while still stubbornly ignoring granny squares...

8) When I am awesomely skilled and can make cute animals, I'm going to crochet a sheep. With fluffy wool all fluffing out in every direction. Fluffily.

Comments

[velvetwhip]

Sorry about the "knit-wits" who don't know about crocheting.


Gabrielle

[vass]

Crochet is way cooler than knitting, but I just can't do it. My brain doesn't work that way, and I get lost and end up crocheting non-Euclidean things. Great if you need an interdimensional portal to the Elder Gods, not so great if you wanted a granny square.

I suggest socks as one of your near future projects. I know nothing about crocheting socks (except that it is a thing people do) but in knitting, socks are totally addictive - they're a small and containable but still large enough project, and they can be as simple or as complex as you like. And in the end you get socks.

[deird1]

When Cthulhu rises, we shall come and make use of your awesome crochet skills...

Currently I'm looking forward to hats. They look fun.

[redsixwing]

I admire practitioners of the fiber arts. My grandmother was one, and would spend just forever doing one granny square after another, and then BAM one day she'd have a blanket.

She also did afghans, but I'm not sure if those are crocheted or knit. /knit-wit

Your subject line made me sporfle.

[kisekileia]

Re #4: Have you found out about Knit Picks yet? Awesome yarn for excellent prices.

[deird1]

Ooh. *gazes*

I think the shipping charges might get in the way of that one, though...

[kisekileia]

OMG. I just looked at their shipping options and they don't offer shipping outside Canada or the U.S. I'm so sorry, I had no idea! You can have stuff shipped to a U.S. or Canadian address but billed to you (shipping is free in the U.S. for amounts over U.S.$50, so U.S. would probably work best), and have the person at that address ship it to you, but you can't have it shipped to Australia. :(:(:(

[deird1]

Ah, the wonders of living overseas from everything...

Still, Australia is kinda known for its sheep. There must be something similar here. Surely. *lives in hope*

[deird1]

Ah-ha! I knew it!

[immer_am_lesen]

Your post title is....obviously innocent, and I know it's called 'hooking', but I'm sorry, you declaring "I'm a happy hooker!" is just too funny....

Soon there'll be no limit to what fun things you can do with wool and yarn and thread and whatnot- you've conquered cross-stitch and knitting, now crochet...what's left?

[deird1]

Actually, I've only conquered knitting to the extent that I've tried it and am very very bad at it. One day I'm going to try it again...

[immer_am_lesen]

Ah, it takes time...I went from one row per day (on a small square, no less!) to being able to do a square a day...and ended up with a nice blanky. :-)
And I can follow instructions to make little rabbits!
Try it again, and give yourself a few weeks/ months to get into it, that's how long it took me...

[(Anonymous)]

If you don't want to do granny squares -- for example because you think they are ugly or because you don't have any use for them -- then you do not have to do them. My advice is to wait until you find one that makes you go "oh my that is the coolest thing ever! i have to have that!" For example, I have resisted granny squares until I saw the stained glass afghan square, which is something I actively want to make, so I will.

Saying you need to make granny squares is like saying that you need to make doilies. Maybe you like doilies and want to make one, so do. Maybe you have no use for a doily and no place to put it once it's finished and nothing to do with it, so don't. What you do need to learn is how to crochet in the round in addition to crocheting flat. But whether you do those rounds in making a granny square, a doily, or a bag to hold your yarn stash, or a cat bed, or a skirt, or a sheep, that's all up to you!

I mean, consider the doily. The doily is intricate and beautiful. It is hard work. You use yarn that is about as thick as a cobweb and spend a bazillion hours and you can be truly proud of yourself when you're done. (But then what? What do you do with it once it's finished? That's why I don't do doilies. But some people do and I am impressed by them but I don't need to make a doily to become proficient at crochet.)

I say all this because you don't seem to enthusiastic about the idea of granny squares. I may be wrong -- you may be looking forward to them, in which case you should find a pattern that you like and have fun!

I don't know if you have the same texture sensitivities that I do, but if you do, if you can only tolerate certain types of socks or certain fabrics then be careful about making socks or gloves or things to wear. One thing that causes me trouble is that the yarn feels somewhat different on the skein than it does once the finished item is worked up. One thing you can do, once you have a finished non-clothing item, is to try holding it against different parts of your body, like the soles of your feet or the palms of your hands. If you get the "get it off me get it off me get it off me aahhhhhhhhh" reaction, then don't make clothing for that body part with that type of yarn. It sucks, because my hands and feet have similar, but slightly different groups of fibres that they react unkindly to, so when I'm buying socks, I will hold them in my hands and pat them and touch them and I sometimes still end up buying socks that put me on the verge of a meltdown whenever I try to wear them.

Anyway, crocheting in the round is not much harder than crocheting a rectangle. The stitches are exactly the same. You can make an oval by crocheting a rectangle and then when you get to one edge, instead of turning, just keep going around the sides and the bottom and back around the other side in spiral. To make it flat, you need to do increases: this is not hard. You just make one crochet stitch through the loops as normal, and then instead of going on to the next loop for putting your hook in, you make another crochet stitch in the same place you just made a stitch in. You probably did this by accident a few times when you were making your first rectangles.

Yarn is expensive. There's this skirt I want to make but it would cost me $85 in yarn to make it. No can has :(