Hello and welcome to the State of Yarn. I hope you enjoy your visit.
So, this blog is a place for me to write about things that interest me. One of these things is crochet. I have been crocheting for 2 or 3 years.
I was inspired to start by my little sister who is a very talented knitter. My sister tends to take her hobbies seriously. She has learnt to spin and dye yarn and has dreams of getting a sheep or other wool producing animal in the future so eventually, she'll be able to make an entire outfit literally from scratch. I decided I wanted to crochet and not knit because crochet seemed a bit easier than knitting and who wants to admit to copying their little sister? I am not nearly as good as my sister though. For a start, I am not as prolific as her. I crochet because it is addictive and fun but I don't have a huge amount of time to devote to it. She makes clothes for friends and family on a regular basis.
I learned the basics of crochet as a child from my mother who taught me the basic chain stitch that everyone starts with. I know this because incidentally, I spent the last school year picking up year 5 students from their textiles lesson and they were learning to crochet. The first thing their teacher taught them was chain stitch. I loved picking them up from that lesson because I got to help them a little bit, it is rare I feel useful in a teaching setting when the subject is not my own. When I was a kid, I crocheted a few minor things, mostly bun nets for ballet which only use chain stitch.
When I decided I wanted to really learn to crochet, I came up with a plan. I bought this book by Nicki Trench:
So, this blog is a place for me to write about things that interest me. One of these things is crochet. I have been crocheting for 2 or 3 years.
I was inspired to start by my little sister who is a very talented knitter. My sister tends to take her hobbies seriously. She has learnt to spin and dye yarn and has dreams of getting a sheep or other wool producing animal in the future so eventually, she'll be able to make an entire outfit literally from scratch. I decided I wanted to crochet and not knit because crochet seemed a bit easier than knitting and who wants to admit to copying their little sister? I am not nearly as good as my sister though. For a start, I am not as prolific as her. I crochet because it is addictive and fun but I don't have a huge amount of time to devote to it. She makes clothes for friends and family on a regular basis.
I learned the basics of crochet as a child from my mother who taught me the basic chain stitch that everyone starts with. I know this because incidentally, I spent the last school year picking up year 5 students from their textiles lesson and they were learning to crochet. The first thing their teacher taught them was chain stitch. I loved picking them up from that lesson because I got to help them a little bit, it is rare I feel useful in a teaching setting when the subject is not my own. When I was a kid, I crocheted a few minor things, mostly bun nets for ballet which only use chain stitch.
When I decided I wanted to really learn to crochet, I came up with a plan. I bought this book by Nicki Trench:
As you can see, it has "35 adorable projects" to teach you to crochet. My plan was (and still is) to to every single crochet project in this book to learn to crochet. The first project took me about 2 years to finish as it was 432 granny squares to make a patchwork quilt. The quilt is now the header for this blog page. It has not been my only project in those two years. I have done two collaborative projects with my sister, matching purses and an owl beanie for my daughter. I have also made a pouch for my phone and whiteboard markers that I can have around a lanyard when I'm wearing clothes without pockets at work and bunting which is the second project from the above book. My current project is from a small book my sister gave me that has four granny square projects for babies. I am making the pram blanket first because it's at the front of the book. After that, I am going to make an advent calendar based on my own idea for a pattern and learn some embroidery for it. In my next blog post on this page, I will talk about one of the projects in detail, probably the blanket. Hopefully I will be able to do that with all my projects. I don't know which I will be slower with; making blog posts or finishing projects.
Thank you for coming to the State of Yarn. I hope you enjoyed your stay.
Thank you for coming to the State of Yarn. I hope you enjoyed your stay.