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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Another reason to love yarn

I'm learning how to crochet. As in, learning the stitches by heart rather than being led step-by-step like I was with the Bucket Bag last summer.*

A week ago, I made this washrag of beauty.

Remedial Crochet Washrag

It had all the basic stitches I needed to commit to memory: how to chain, single and double crochet, and slip stitch. There was even a little half-double crochet thrown in for a bit of whiplash. The pattern is called My Fave Dishcloth by Kathy North.

All that basic crochet swordplay was needed as a prerequisite for a second-level crochet class I signed up for at my local yarn shop. I took the class. I learned not only how to crochet in the round…

Crochet 102 Coaster

A coaster!

…but the pièce de résistance was a beloved Granny Square.

Crochet 102 Granny Square

On just a mechanical level, I see how these things could be addicting. Granny squares are super easy and fast. However, I'm a child of the '70s, and my recollection of granny square blankets is ablaze with harvest gold and avocado green acrylic yarns. And a kind of whimpering orange. The colors make me itch, to say nothing of the petrochemical fiber itself. So, I have this mental block when it comes to a full-on addiction to granny squares. Maybe if I used something like Noro Kureyon or the Lion Brand look-alike, Amazing, then I could crochet piles of squares.

In the meantime, I began a crocheted shawl. Elise Shawl, by Evan Plevinski. I'm using a bamboo yarn called Happy, and that's how it makes me feel because it's lusciously soft.

Elise Shawl begins

Oh, yeah. And it's pink. Normally, not so much my color, but this skein seems to have more power than prissiness in it, so I've made an exception.

I'll post updates to the shawl's progress.

* The crocheted bucket bag from last year. The pattern is in a booklet entitled Enviro-Totes
by Leisure Arts.
Bucket Tote 3

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