Hooked
Yes, I've fallen for the crooked ways of crochet. My mother has now moved into a nursing home and I have been doing some gentle destashing in her house (not yarns, just stuff, like really sharp kitchen knives and baking powder). I found a beautiful crocheted cream wool blanket/shawl that I didn't remember seeing before. My mother told me that her mother made it when she was expecting her - all of 89 years ago! I was so pleased to have something made by my grandmother, who died when my mother was only a month old (childbed fever). I got some advice from someone who knows a lot about crochet and worked out the pattern. It's not a difficult one and I have started my own version in a lambswool laceweight yarn that I bought on a partial cone a few years ago. That's the blue/green blob in this picture:
But of course it didn't stop there. I googled, browsed blogs, bought looked at books. I was rather taken by the Larger than Life crocheted bag that some people are making. I didn't have the authentic pattern but the pattern for the square is the same as Willow in Jan Eaton's crochet squares book (without the final tier). However, when I'd made my twelve squares I couldn't see them as a bag and I've decided to make two cushion covers instead. The colours are exactly right for our sitting room. The yarn is Rown DK Light that Dawn gave me for the baby clothes (and for any projects I wanted - thank you Dawn!) and these were the colours that I couldn't really see on a baby (looking a bit washed out here in the sunshine).
One thing led to another and now I'm crocheting a ripple blanket (google it, or look at Jan Eaton's fab book, on ripple stitches for crochet or knitted afghans. This is from stashed Jo Sharp dk that I keep hauling out and putting back because the blue is just not quite right. I feel that it's in the spirit of crochet to use up oddments/stash, so I quite like the slightly off look of the colours here. One thing I've learned about these rippley things - they pull in, so make your initial chain a bit longer than you expect.
My mother was very good at crochet and I can't actually remember learning to crochet, although it must have been when I was very little. I'm quite proud to be in a line of crocheting women, although I've a long way to go before I match my mother.
