All this talk of bakery trucks and donuts makes one work up an appetite, doesn’t it?
One of my goals for the year was to learn how to crochet and here it is March already and I’ve gotten absolutely no where with it. Of course I haven’t learned to speak French yet either but what are you going to do.
So today I headed over to JoAnn’s for supplies. We do have a number of fabulous, chi chi yarn shops in the area but I didn’t want to be seduced by all the expensive, dreamy yarns. Nope, I wanted just a basic yarn and a few basic hooks. I also picked up "Learn to Crochet" by the Nomis Yarn Company because they have the instructions for both right handed AND left handed crocheters. And if you are left handed you know exactly the kind of frustration one normally runs into with instructions books.
Does anyone ball their yarn anymore? I remember growing up one of us girls was forever being recruited to hold out a skein of yarn on our forearms while my mother rolled it into a ball. My arms ache just thinking about it.
Anyway, I made my purchase, took a photo for posterity and then fully intended to crochet a granny square or two and take a photo of it for the dramatic after shot. But guess what? I can’t even make a basic chain! I couldn’t make it work or really make sense of the pictures – even the left handed ones. I’m a crocheting failure.
My Grandma Agnes tried to teach me about 20 years ago and finally told me to give it up because I was too tense. I do remember making a bit more progress than I did today but I think, if I recall correctly, that she made the chain for me and then turned it over to me. All I need is three chains to get my granny square started and I think I’m going to have to get back in my car and go to the chi chi yarn shop and ask them to create the chain for me. Those ladies there are pretty nice, I bet they would do it.
I do have one bit of crocheting advice, despite being a total novice. Don’t eat a chocolate donut and try to ball white yarn at the same time.
Well, you’re not the only one who can’t crochet. I tried too, and I just can’t figure it out.
My mom taught me to crochet when I was little. I used to make chains that were yards and yards long because that was the only thing I could do. Finally I learned to crochet things. I know there are some knitting video tutorials online so there probably are some crochet ones also. Basically you are just pulling a loop through your first loop and pulling it taunt and continueing that until you reach the desired number of chains. I’m the worst at following directions from a book so I can totally relate!
You have touched upon a musical chord of the same key. I always wanted to own a store and write. The last job I had was as an examiner at a banknote and spent fourteen years there. When my daughter turned two I decided to stay home and raise our two kids.
I remember quite well the days I longed to have time off just to be with my kids and dreaded leaving them at the sitters as late as midnight at times. Waking them up in the dark early hours of cold winter mornings and coming home exhausted and waking them up from their sound sleep late in the evenings. Many times I thought if only my endometriosis would flare up enough to grant me some leave but I wasn’t ill enough at the time for sick leave.
Now just turned fifty I have found my muse….writing. Love the blogging and enjoy reading others decorating and crafting ventures but still too broke to actually have a whole lot to spend on it. Still I do get a share of it; not nearly has much as I would like.
So instead I have found writing for the moment and it seems to actually keep me in peace with myself.
Oh yes, at times I get the terrible urge to go wild shopping and wishing I could do a complete makeover in my house, garden to my hearts content, buy all the roses and flowers I love {which are infinite}, buy new wardrobes for the entire family and travel but again with every evening and morning cup of coffee or tea I sit back and relinquish on what I once had desperately wished for and realize I have it; just not the money I had hoped to accompany it…haha.
n.b.
Yes, I know I’m a few posts back but I thought I could probably enlighten a few readers that there are sooo many of us out there with the same hopes and dreams harboring the same very thoughts. All the luck to you and your shop; that is if you decide on that; I’m sure it certainly be just as lovely as your home. Take care
Luv Annabelle
Yes you’re right, it’s difficult to learn crochet when you’re left-handed. My mother taught me most crafts as a child, I remember well the struggle she had to teach me to knit, but we persevered and I became an expert knitter. But crochet…forget it, we really tried but it wasn’t to be…she had to try and show me the opposite way round ,very tricky.
Now that crochet is so popular again I really want to learn, so like you I’m going to try and teach myself. I’ll be watching your attempts with interest..good luck!
Love the blog by the way!
I’m left- handed too and I could never get the hang of crochet.
Loved the last line of the post…sounds like some of the things I do!!!!
Ahh, you are too cute! Don’t feel bad, I can’t do it either… I can knit and purl and that’s why I keep making scarves and that’s it! LOL Loved this post AND that delicious photo of the donut! Yummy!
xo,
Kim
What a sweet blog! I almost passed it by, after seeing that donut…thinking, oh my, this blog will surely kill my diet.
But, instead, I have spent some delightful time reading some of your entries. (and the wool doesn’t affect my diet at all) I can’t knit or crochet! Thanks for sharing your donut (and taking care of the calories for me) and giving the don’t mix chocolate and wool tip! 🙂
Lidy
I’m a newer visitor to your blog and am greatly enjoying it!
My youngest daughter is left-handed and teaching her how to knit was a breeze. Teaching her to crochet has completely eluded us.
Chocolate donuts though have not. That’s definitely something that we can both enjoy together without worrying about our difference in handedness.
Great blog! I look forward to reading more.
Nope, no one balls yarn anymore. No one I know anyway. I do have a ball winder that will spin a ball of yarn in no time flat. The kids BEG to help with that magic thing.
You can’t be all that far from St. Louis (StL is kind of in the middle of the US…nothing is far from the middle, right?) C’mon over and we’ll have you crocheting in no time.
I have tricks for relaxing tense crocheters. I ply them with cheesecake and tea until they’re so mellow the yarn just floats through their fingers. Works every time!
it’ll get easier if you don’t let the yarn trick you into thinking you can’t do it!
Whenever I go home to visit, my littlest brother (he just turned 9) asks me if I have any yarn that needs rolling into balls. He really loves rolling yarn, which is a great time-doubler for me. and it’s fun for him, too. : ) Although it does make me feel like Tom Sawyer 😉