I learnt to crochet when I was 15. I had pleurisy and spent 10 lazy days in a small private hospital near our home. It was so small that I spent all that time in the almost empty maternity ward - there was one old lady who took pity on me and proceeded to teach me how to pass the time in a constructive manner - with a crochet hook.
I can still remember the mauve colour and the texture of the wool, and although I have forgotten the actual design, I know that she taught me some sort of shell pattern.
I am very grateful to that lovely old granny. She shared a skill with me that my own mother didn't possess and she consequently provided me with many happy hours of hooky fun since then!
Sewing and all things fabric have always been my main creative outlet - after all, my mother is a tailor - and I was surrounded by fabric from very early on. Crocheting has been something different that I've picked up and used now and again over the years - baby cardigans, soakers, woollen caps, granny rugs, filet cushions and a few fancy doilies. Crochet seems to come naturally to me and I love it because it comes together so quickly.
But knitting?? now thats a different story entirely! Mum knits too, and has churned out vast numbers of socks and quite a few jumpers and vests. She taught me to knit in my late teens and I actually finished a vest with repurposed wool, many years ago. I knit the Continental or European way which is supposedly a faster method ........ BUT ........ I just cant feel comfortable with knitting needles!!
The whole process seems/is so painstakingly slow - one row takes me ages and what do I have to show for it? Perhaps a few millimetres more than the last row!!!
Oh, just give me a piece of fabric and a pattern and I'll show you a finished garment in a day!!!
But oh, oh, oh, how I admire
Soule Mama's regular churning out of all things knitted;
and how longingly I follow Ginny, her adorable children and their gorgeous hand knits, at
Small Things; and as for Linda over at
Natural Suburbia...... I'm in awe of her clever hand knitted menagerie!! And now she's knitting shawls....shawls!! So quickly too!
Whats more, all these mama's and loads more, seem to follow those tricky abbreviations in knitting patterns with no trouble at all. I just know they have all been written in code so that only the elite can decipher them!
Now all this, just to say that I spent the day last Friday (wo)manning our wood heater display at the Devonport Show with the Best Man. Not wanting to sit and do nothing between customers, I took along some balls of cotton yarn that I'd picked up at our local op shop and thought I'd crochet up some dish cloths. Of course, you all knit yours, don't you? Or maybe you buy them, but I had a go at crocheting a few in various shades of green!
And after 6 hours and two and a half finished cloths I feel I'm justified in saying that crocheting is my thing!!! Two of them finished and ready to use - so fast!!! Especially when compared to the sock below.....
.....this sock, this single lonely sock has taken me 2 years! Actually half sock as I'm only up to the heel. Oh I started out well, with every intention of mastering this knitting phobia, finishing two woolly socks for myself and then progressing on to something else..... like..... a jumper or cardigan....or a shawl; but no, it has given me grief at every twist and turn! This small project tottered along all the way down to the beginning of the heel and then sent me running to Google to find out how to 'turn the corner'.
Arrgghhh, I have several bald spots to show for my attempts at searching the world for a method I could understand - after deciphering the code, of course!
I am on the home stretch, having bungled my way through the heel but I feel completely deflated by it all and am only continuing on to finish this trial challenge and have a completed article.
I can most emphatically tell you, though, that there will not be a second sock - I have completely forgotten what I did where and how it was done!!
It's a pity really as I was looking forward to shocking my kids by wearing techno woolies with my Blundstone boots and a skirt!!
