My first ever crochet project

My experience in the fiber arts has been one of climatic evolution, nothing for a very long time and then a boom in change. By that I mean, I started with teaching myself knit and purl and stuck to scarves for about four years. I didn't do anything else aside from that for a very, very long time.

Then one day, after not knitting anything for about half a year, I decided to make baby booties. This spark in my desire to knit was brought on by the newly announced pregnancy of my cousin M. Well from the knit flat, sewn up the foot and back booties came a plethora of hats, booties, learning to knit in the round, discovering circular needles and having no spending money because I discovered the greatest thing, P-town has a TON of local yarn stores.

After I felt comfortable in my new found knitting abilities, I started to yearn to learn more. Three weeks ago, I decided to teach myself to spin yarn, you know of course, just in case the Zombie Apocalypse happens. These are skills that will make me valuable to any survivor group.

Gosh, I like to tell stories... Anyway, this then spurred me to learn to crochet. I had attempted to summit Mt. Crochet a handful of times prior in my fiber arts evolution. I failed, failed miserably. I just couldn't get over the hurdle that was only one implement with which to create fabric.

I'm not sure what was different this time, whether it was dogged determination, or just a better grasp of what I was trying to make the yarn do, I managed to create something that resembles crochet.

I present to you my Scrap Flowers in the Snow Baby Blanket. I stumbled on this pattern after seeing it on Ravelry Co-Founder's projects page. I looked at the other raveler's creations and just like the simplicity and customization of the colors.

This is unusual for me. I (don't stone me die hard crocheters) typically don't like how crochet looks. I (I'm a self admitted knitting snob) think you can do more with knitting and it looks a bit cleaner. Granted, had I learned to crochet first, I might feel totally different. This was the way the cookie crumbled in my case.

However, I really liked this blanket. So I set out to one day make it, though not really sure how to do it, since I really didn't know how to crochet. However, Solvig Grimstad did a fantastic job of writing a pattern that was simple to follow for a beginner as well as document each step with a corresponding photo to help double check that your outcome looked like hers as you went. Another highlight of how good this pattern is Solvig's native language isn't English, however her Norwegian/English pattern was easy to follow and well executed. With the great pattern and my copy of Reader's Digest Knitting and Crochet Stitches off I went.

The first few disks looked a bit sloppy, but improved with each successive one. I used all scrap yarn I have in my big Rubbermaid drawer system. This made R very happy. He didn't have to see another bag come in full of yarn, and I was able to make space in the drawers, something that is becoming an issue, and didn't spend any money. I used all Cascade 220 Superwash that was left over from two baby blankets and gifts for friends. Apparently I like blues, greys and oranges. All the scraps I had left over fell in some shade of those three color families.

I made 24 disks, to make a 4x6 wide blanket before doing the square border around each disk. I started to run out of certain colors of scrap yarn, therefore the blanket ended up a little small. I think this will make a great car seat/stroller blanket. It might work as a newborn blanket, but it is a bit small. It measures in total 2'x3'. Is fully machine wash and dryable. The ideal size looks like 48 disks (6 disks x 8 disks) would work out as a great baby blanket size.

Next up this week, adventures in switching from conventional to natural soap.