Crochet Instructions - Slip Stitch huh!

After convincing myself that I needed to learn the fine art of crochet I eagerly started to hunt around the house for some old crochet books. Where else would you want to go to get crochet instructions.

Finding an old book on crochet is not like discovering “The Secret”. Its more like finding that long lost diary of yours and eagerly reading it to remind yourself of those finer moments...yep should have done that...thought you were over it did you...yeah right. Well that is the same feeling you get when your discover the crochet book.

Taking the cotton in my left hand...oh and then is that in front of the hook or behind the hook...yeah and now we wrap the hook around the cotton and then we do WHAT...

How on earth did people learn to crochet from hand drawn diagrams? You call that a chain...once you pick yourself off the floor you realise we live in a blessed age of visual everything if you want it.

Now take a look at his description “Single Crochet – this is the first of the basic stitches. It is the shortest stitch and results in a firm, flat product. To make a single crochet, make sure the front side of the chain is facing you, then insert the hook through a chain, yarn over, pull the loop through the chain, yarn over again, and pull through both loops on the hook”

Can you imagine trying to learn from that...thank goodness for the modern time we live in. We have video instruction.

But the best is having and on demand mom who is a great teacher...if I can only bite my tongue...there that’s better. Mom showed me that I only need to learn a handful of stitches to get going with my first project. What a great feeling of accomplishment you get when you make something yourself. Yeah yeah cliché I know...you’ll see.

It is really easy to get started when you have the right crochet instructions even if you need to get rid of the ten thumbs like I have got.

Starting a project

Slip Stitch

Double Crochet (UK) or Single Crochet (USA)

Crochet Instructions - Snowman

Watching my daughter’s mounting expectation as her granny crocheted her new toy ... brought back flooding memories of crochet instructions

being given to the weekly crew of ladies wishing to master the art of crochet...

My mom used to run this 12 week program that had 6 to 8 ladies show up in our living room once a week to learn the finer points of crochet.

The first week was always the same...loads of enthusiasm and ooohhhhs and aaaahhhs as they looked at the 12 projects they would make...cute toys, toilet paper covers (dare I say a little dated these days) etc. But I knew what was coming ...

Usually the first week wasn’t bad as the project was really a simple one incorporating the basic slip knot, a chain and a single crochet...nothing too tough..

Then came week two mmmmm. Things were about to become interesting...fun even at least for me. They learnt to do more complex things and then got to finish it for homework.

I don’t know about you but I really hated homework and the ladies were about to discover the same thing. The next week they would either proudly or sheepishly present their crochet projects depending whether they had completed it or not. My mom would inspect the projects carefully ... and then there was at least one scream of anguish as my mom made someone pull out all the crochet stitches until they came to the error she had just discovered... then they got to fix it...mom wasn’t that mean she did help them to get their project back to a healthy state.

Those days I definitely wanted to avoid the same fate that those ladies had chosen and thus didn’t bother to learn from my mom.

Now looking at my daughter waiting excitedly for her toy I wish I had taken the time...could it be time to take crochet instructions and make toys for my daughter.