By hook and by crook I will learn this skill

For this award I have to learn a new skill and I decided this would be the push to learn how to crochet. A long long time ago my Mum tried to teach me but I just didn’t get it. I could never turn the corner when doing squares and gave up and went back to my knitting. Two needles were always better than one for me.

This time I started with a book (that’s how I always start new projects) but still struggled. Someone suggested YouTube and www.bellacoco.co.uk. I tried that and hey presto after a failed Granny Square I made a Daisy. I was so proud of my accomplishment. YouTube is the modern day equivalent of having someone sit beside you and teach you with the advantage they don’t get annoyed when you get it wrong and you can just replay the same part over and over again until you do get it.

I made flowers,hearts and butterflies and eventually went back to my book and followed a pattern to make an owl (which I haven’t actually got round to sewing together yet but the pieces look good.)

But I needed something bigger to do.

In my meanderings around all the crochet websites, blogs and pinterest I found out about Yarndale. This is an event held in September in Skipton, North Yorkshire. The website (yarndale.co.uk) describes it as a "creative festival celebrating all things woolly and wonderful", I was in awe of all the wool that was there to buy and all the hand-made creations that were knitted and crocheted. After much dithering I bought 2 packs of wool to make an Attic24 Harmony blanket and bunting but once home didn’t feel ready to tackle them as I kept making mistakes when doing this type of pattern (my wonky snowflake and Christmas tree are testament to this.)

As I was looking through my books again looking for inspiration my daughter asked me to make her a cushion cover in lime green to match the colour scheme of her bedroom, so I did. Half way through I noticed it was not quite the rectangle it was meant to be but realised what I was doing wrong. I decided when it was sewn up no one would notice. I still think it looks a bit wonky but Kate is happy and that's what matters.

I decided it was time to tackle something bigger and started with a straightforward blanket with beautiful stripes of colours. After reading the Attic 24 blog (www.attic24.typepad.com) I was inspired to start on a blanket, maybe! I dithered about buying the wool for several days and then decided to just go for it and now it’s nearly done. Apart from taking 8 hours one afternoon/night to get the first two rows done (involved doing it, pulling it out and re-doing but I wasn’t going to be beaten) and then 45 minutes for each row. I am eventually getting quicker. I can take no credit for the colour combination as I am following a pattern but it’s beautiful and each new row is like a pop of colour. It inspires me to keep going to see how the next colour will sit with the previous. It is nearly finished and is quite useful for keeping me warm some nights.

Once this is done what’s next, maybe I’ll try the bunting and I want to make more flowers for a spring wreath and then the Harmony blanket is sitting there mocking me and I must stop looking at other people’s creations as I want to do them all. And as it's a New Year I've read about temperature blankets where you change the colour of your wool depending on the temperature of the day. Okay realistically I’ll finish this blanket and then I'll pick one new project, who knows what it will be!