a new calling

crochet
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

About a month ago, if not longer, I met up with my dear friend Kayla (not my sister-in-law Kayla). We had tea at Starbucks and just sat and talked. As I approached her initially (because I was late...and am standardly late more often than not) she was knitting. Or so I thought.

I told her I had no idea she could knit, and she quickly corrected me. She was not knitting, she was crocheting. I said, "Whatever," at which point she informed me that knitters are "crazy" and she would never knit. Aparantly she has been knitting since she was a girl, and her mother would have her and her sister knit when they were in trouble to help calm them down.

I can't believe I never knew this about my friend! And I can't believe I never learned how to do this before. I used to make friendship bracelets and thought it was so cool when I made one using, little known to me, a chain stitch.

So as I started to teach myself how to crochet with a small manual I purchased for a dollar along with a package of crochet hooks and two bundles or yarn, I found it was easier than I anticipated.

UNTIL I started to attempt my first row above the chain stitch row. YIKES. I was starting with the soft, chunky yarn that's sorta fuzzy...and visibility was pretty horrible. I couldn't see any of my chains to hook through, and ended up skipping chains all together, until what I had resembled more of an oval shape than a rectangle. Frustrated, I knotted the end of it and tossed the pathetic piece of yarn at Eleana declaring it a blanket for her Littlest Pet Shop collection. She loves it.

So, a few days ago I met Kayla for lunch and tea to read tarot for her, and to learn from her what the hell I was doing wrong. I showed her my yarn and she said, "no no no no." I started with the wrong wrong wrong yarn for a beginner. After 4-hour visit chatting over tea and jazz, I headed home, resolving to pick out a different yarn later.

While driving home I called Joe to inform him of my arrival and he asked if I had gotten milk and diapers. I totally forgot to pick both items up, so I had to turn around and venture back to Walmart. Serendipity intervened and I took a short detour to the craft section of my favorite superstore (aside from Target...but we don't have none of them in these parts, hyuk) to pick out this lovely bit of brown speckled yarn.

This photo is of the beginnings of my now fabulous scarf. I will post a photo of the full piece later. I am so proud of myself! It isn't perfect, even as it's finished. I think I did something wrong on the ends of each row, but I know what my mistake was/could have been and am going to try a different technique on my second scarf.

This is my new favorite hobby. It reminds me so much of cross stitching in a way...it's so soothing and hypnotic. Except with this I didn't have to look up to check a pattern or change colors...it's beautiful in it's simplicity. Next up, leg warmers! After about 5 more scarves of course.