Thursday, January 14, 2010

Learning to Crochet

This past July while my husband was traveling, I decided to see if I could learn to crochet. I was greatly motivated by the lovely crochet work of a dear friend and mentor in all things related to being a loving wife & making the home a place of hospitality and beauty. Unfortunately she doesn't live very close by. So with the help of the internet and YouTube, I went about the learning process. I am extremely grateful to:

Crafttown.com's free crochet lesson's page which includes illustrated stitches and a chart explaining crochet abbreviations.

About.com:Crochet Many excellent and helpful links usually with photos. About also hosts some free crochet patterns.

The Knitwitch on YouTube - Crochet videos!

Crochet Pattern Central for free crochet patterns.

Below is a picture of a headscarf, the first thing I actually made (before I realized that you were supposed to pick up both strings of the loop with the hook and not just the front or the back ones). I also decreased in this pattern, but I'm still not certain whether I did it correctly or not.

You can find instructions for this pattern by Sandi Marshall at About.com: Single Crochet Triangle Scarf Pattern.

I recently finished a scarf that I crocheted out of some milk cotton which I picked up on a visit to WanChai Market in Hong Kong. Not being familiar with different kinds of yarns, I had never heard of milk cotton. One website said that this kind of cotton yarn is really soft because it contains 30% milk protein. I just know it had a nice feel and color mixture. I don't often know the weight of the yarn I am using, but I really like working with cotton. This pattern was easy and fun to crochet.

Free pattern by Marie Anne St. Jean is called One Skein Scarf to Crochet. I did use about one and a half large balls of yarn for mine.


4 comments:

  1. Katie, I'm glad you enjoyed my simple pattern. Thank you so much for featuring it here. You did a great job, and I love the color you chose. That milk cotton yarn sounds like it would feel nice to work with.

    Hop on over to my crochet blog at http://macrochet.blogspot.com/ so you don't miss the next WIP Wednesday!

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  2. Dear Marie Anne,

    I so appreciate you posting your patterns. It really has made my meager beginnings fun and successful. Can't wait to check out your blog. In fact that's where I'm headed now....

    (I have an alter identity and go by Steph or Katie :) )

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  3. I'm a firm believer in *self taught*, and it's easier than ever with all the craft books and the Internet. As for me, I'm a self taught quilter. Your scarf, lovely color, turned out beautifully. xo,

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  4. Your quilts and your blog are lovely! This gives me hope. (Saffy is pretty sweet too.) Thank you for your encouraging words.

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Thank you for your comments. They help me feel that I am some how connected out here in Blogland and not just writing to the air.

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