Heeeeeer's Walli!

Heeeeeere's Walli!

 

My father's mother crocheted, knit, used a home knitting machine and a more industrial sized knitting machine, and even Irish crocheted large table coverings and bed covers.  I learned from her to crochet on my finger when I was eight or nine years old.  She also patiently taught me to loom flowers on a pegged plastic circle.  Unfortunately, I developed a bad habit right away, I would get an urge to crochet, purchase a skein of yarn and a hook and go to work on a project it for a couple of hours.  Sometimes, I would at least get far enough where you may even recognize what I may be making, but most times, the project ended up unfinished, in a drawer or closet, forgotten about and later discarded during a cleaning or a move.  I am happy to say that those days are behind me now, the bug bit and it finally took.  As my children grew older and left home and minor health issues slowed me down, I had a smidgen more down time here in the house and a new purpose for yarn work projects, grandchildren!

 

I was surprised around five years ago, when my sisters, whom had never before shown an interest in crocheting or knitting, became loom-aholics.  Once they realized how simple it was use to knit using a loom, they were hooked!  My nephew's friend was knitting hats on a loom and selling them to help out his mom, she was in cancer treatment.  Soon, my nephews and nieces were knitting on looms, making hats and scarves.  Back a couple of years ago, I purchased a loom kit and began knitting scarves and hats too, it was exciting because most of my projects were started and finished in the same day!  Soon, I was crocheting small projects and then I graduated to bigger items and I learned to knit on two needles.  Once the concept of yarn work took hold, my sisters graduated to crocheting and one even knits; which is more difficult to me but this is not a true statement for all, it falls under preference.    I am SO happily fascinated by the popularity of yarn work these days and I love how the Internet makes me feel like I'm in one big little yarn shop.

I have many sites that I enjoy browsing for yarn work patterns and ideas.  A few of my favorites are Ravelry, Moogly and Crochet Pattern Central  Ravelry.com never lets me down, I can always find something that catches my eye....who am I kidding?  I can get stuck on their site for hours!  One of my favorite designers is Drops Designs, with over 6200 designs.  The patterns that I have paid for on  Ravelry were fair priced to me, however, most patterns that I have used I was able to find for free.  It is my preference now to never buy a book or pamphlet in the store, but that is mainly because I am a pattern hoarder and I do not have a place for them.  And since I have now become a pattern hoarder, how thankful am I for Pinterest?? 

 

I have had a couple of friends mention putting my stuff on Etsy, and I would like to do this.  I really enjoy the pattern making process though and I will be blogging patterns because I think that I can make them easy and fun to do.  I am posting a picture of three hats that I recently crocheted for my daughter's baby shower.  My first grandson, Wyatt is due to arrive in three weeks.  His nursery and baby shower theme was pirates, so I crocheted a pirate applique for a little beanie and I also made a Pirate Owl beanie.  The black and white beanie I did just because.  I am going to make another Pirate Owl beanie and post the pattern for free for those who would like to crochet it themselves.  I am also going to put the beanie for sale on Etsy for those of you who would like to purchase one.

 

Enjoy!

 

moogly.com