Crochet!!! and a finally completed striped jacket.

As I said in my last post I was hoping to get Jaybugs jacket finished by the weekend. Well it's Wednesday and it was all finished Tuesday. So I think that's close enough. I'm unsure how happy I am with it.

I love the colours but as you sew it together with the reverse as the right side it's a little untidy. I am a perfectionist and things that show the flaws are something I struggle with. My control on the world is having everything in its place and clutter sends me spinning. Its just a knitted jacket, I know...... But that but is still there. Jaybug loves it so I feel special to her.  I guess I need to work a little more on the letting go of silly things, like the not quite perfectness of the jacket.

 

I am up to issue 3 of the Art of Crochet series. I am unsure how long I will buy it for as at $9.99 and 120 issues - I'm sure I can do a lot of really cool things with $1200! But it is really good the way the show you how to and I am enjoying the patterns that I have collected so far.

I have made 2 of the first 3 throw squares. I'm not overly fond of the fact my squares don't seem to be square. There is something I just am not doing right yet and I can't tell you how many times I have unpulled them and remade them..... As you can see below they curl in at the edges. Is my tension too tight? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

I also took an Youtube tutorial on making flowers.

 

It was quite fast and I had to keep going over it. But I managed to get the general gist (I am learning this is important, not perfection of a pattern, to making it work) of it and have been making some flowers from my head.

I have visions of myself making super amazing block blankets (that's not going too well is it!), funky headbands and hats, just to name a few. I have made 2 head bands so far and am learning how to make adjustments to get them to sit/fit better.

 

I have been reading lots of crochet blogs to get ideas and inspiration. One of my favs is PaisleyJade and she has just put together this awesome How to crochet here. I love the colours and fun she brings to crochet and I aspire to her coolness of crochet.

There are 2 sets of terms that crochet patterns are written in - UK and US. I knew this as I had read it somewhere, about making sure you stick to what you learn in. But then the most helpful thing I uncovered was that US terms and UK terms use the same names for stitches but they mean completely different things! This is where I had spend hours getting confused previously. I found this conversion chart here which illustrates it quite well. Yeah, ok, I might seem a little crazy but this was a super big deal in my crochet learning world!

When looking for crochet books to purchase to help with my crochet coolness, I stumbled on this blog from thornberry and she has a page for her crochet library. It is quite a good idea as I have been able to google the books and find out more about them and if any of them would suit me.

After looking into one that caught my attention I decided I must buy it. I managed to find it cheapest at The Book Depository. They have free delivery world wide and with our $NZD being at the best time to buy I got myself my very own copy of 200 Crochet Blocks. It worked out to be roughly $24 including the charge for the credit card to buy from overseas. Over half the price I have found it online in NZ! It took exactly 7 days from when it was sent to arrival. I was so SUPER EXCITED the day it arrived.

I know this will be a fab addition to my brand new crochet library. I have so many fantastic ideas as I flick through this book. The colours are great and the patterns easy to follow. I just need to master some more skill first!

There is a amazingly beautiful blanket shown in here that I am just biting at the bit to make for Jaybug. Here are my first two squares - Lots of practice still needed to get them right though, but the blanket is enough motivation to keep practicing.

After such a great experience with The Book Depository I have my second addition to the crochet library on the way. I am eagerly awaiting its arrival!