Hallmark Holiday Crochet

I have something to admit to you.  You already know that I am the uncraftiest of them all.  What you may not know is that there is a special place in my heart for the occasional Hallmark Channel movie.  And I love Christmas movies even more.  This is most likely because my dad celebrates Chanukah and my mom spent several years ruining Christmas by decorating our tree super-80s-Southwestern style (long live the Christmas Cactus!).    


A few days ago, I decided (after much encouragement from Mary) to spend my day learning the basics of crochet while watching Hallmark Channel Christmas movies - because they know me well enough to realize that I will totally watch cheesy Christmas movies in the middle of summer.  That's how I roll.


I started out with a pack of crochet hooks from Michael's and a ball of yarn I found in the leftovers from my mom's storage unit (I have a lot of her yarn, but this one is a spare).  I only have one book on crochet, but it has a small how-to section in the back, so it got me started enough for me to figure out if this whole crochet thing was really going to work for me.  Which isn't to say that I haven't learned how to do the first step (a foundation chain) before.  I know I've made one, but I can't even remember who helped me with it, so remembering how to hold the tension (the way you hold the yarn) didn't go so great.  Actually that was one of my big issues before.  I'm assuming that practice is the only thing that is going to change that.  The pictures of the book and hooks, below, are product links to Amazon for the exact items I got.  For something I am NOT going to make, click here.

I started out with a US I9 5.5mm crochet hook (the pink one), because...I have no idea what I'm doing and it seemed like a good idea at the time.  I decided to start by making a few foundation chains (recommended by Mary).  I just watched the video embedded in the last sentence...I totally didn't do that...  Here's a vagapple for you...

The first chain I made (with the pink hook) is the longer one below (in other words, not the one with the blue hook, which you probably already figured out) and it is obviously not a very good chain.  It won't lay flat because the stitches are uneven, but I hadn't done this in a while, so I wasn't too dismayed.  I decided to switch to the blue one, a US H8 (ha!) 5mm hook.  And no, not because I hate crochet, I hadn't gotten that joke yet.  I just wanted to try a slightly smaller hook with this yarn to see if it made a difference.  It felt much more comfortable and the chain turned out better (it lays flat and only the first few stitches are uneven).  I'm going to need a lot of practice and better instructions.

Part of me really doesn't want to do the learning part of this, I just wanna make stuff - I want to already know.  This is why I gave up knitting (I really hated that).  But I like crochet.  I feel more comfortable with a crochet hook than with knitting needles (there are two of them, it's so confusing!...shush) and I have all these boxes of fantastic yarn (which I won't touch until I know what I'm doing).  So let's make it official - I am really going to try to learn how to crochet.  

To keep me from being half-assed about it (and because she loves me), Mary bought me an online crochet class from Craftsy!  Craftsy offers online video courses in a wide variety of crafts, from Artisan Bread Making to The Art of Cloth Dyeing.  There are several crochet classes available, including two beginners classes.  I am going to sign up for Crochet Lab with Vickie Howell, which goes over all the details from choosing tools to learning stitches.  My ulterior motive is to someday take the Amigurumi: Design Your Own Monster course.  Duh.

I am off to sign up and will post more details about the class and my progress (let's hope there will be some of that) later in the week.  Actual crafting, you guys!  Crazy!