Hooked

Micellaneous crochet projects

Who knew crochet could be so much fun?! Me, I’ve always been an avid knitter and had trouble wrapping my head around crochet. Sure, I could do the standard stuff. Crochet chains, picot edgings, crab stitch, the odd flower here and there and maybe even a pot holder once in a blue moon. But it always felt awkward and after 15 minutes tops my hands started to cramp. But what was even worse: I had the hardest time keeping straight edges. This seems to be a common problem for knitters who start out with crochet. The number of stitches in a row just isn’t as obvious as in knitting. Drove me nuts to see that no matter what I did stitches got lost and it all got wonky.

Half Granny Square Scarf

This all changed with some hand-spun yarn and lots of inspiring half granny square scarves and shawls in Ravelry’s project database. There’s a few patterns up there and I just jumped right in figuring out this basic crochet triangle. My mind and my hands seemed to have adjusted to crochet while I wasn’t looking. Go figure. After a few rows it turned into a motivating and mindless and above all quick project.

Granny square stole

There’s been no turning back after that. I even figured out crochet charts. They are so easy. It’s really one of those „Duh!“ things where you cannot imagine how you could have NOT understood before. And I bought more than a few Japanes crochet pattern books mainly because they are so incredibly cute and well made. All in all I get the impression that crochet works up much faster than knitted fabric and eats much more yarn. Which would make it a good stash buster. And I just love the vintage look of those basic granny squares. And it works well with the hippie chic style that’s been making it into the fashion stores this spring. And another pro for crochet: It works well with hand-spun singles since you won’t get a biased fabric. Neat.