i'm hooked!


i love to learn.

i love to learn new things.

i love to read books {mostly historical fiction} set in different time periods, in different countries, in different cultures.  there's much to be learned from recreational reading, even if the story line is primarily fictional.

right now, my favorite "new thing" to learn is various crafts.
although i've had a pinterest account for ages, i had virtually never used it.  it all overwhelmed me and i was convinced that i'd sit for hours pinning ideas, never really implementing them.
toward the very end of last year, my friend turned me on to the true benefits and practical uses of pinterest...
and i've been pinning ever since.
no, i don't spend hours on there daily.  actually, there are often days that i don't even look at a pin.
but if i'm in need of ideas or inspiration or just a bit of know-how on a certain little project, pinterest is pretty much my new go-to.

that was a bit of a rabbit trail, because this post isn't at all about pinterest.
it's about crochet.
i've wanted to learn to crochet for-just-about-ever.
i taught myself {through rudimentary printed-out directions} the most basic of basics of knitting several years ago, but i'd never attempted crochet on my own.
a year ago, i went through a brief stint of trying to learn crochet...begging my best friend to teach me how to make granny squares and hearts and flowers and all sorts of fun things...sitting down with her to crochet, only to tear out my stitches in frustration because my hook kept getting stuck, or the yarn kept splitting, or something just didn't look right, or...or...or...
you get the picture.
it didn't go well.
to say the least.

i'm a very visual learner, a very tactile learner.
i learn facts very quickly from reading, and grasp concepts easily in a classroom setting, but i learn skills best in a one-on-one setting.
and although our crochet "lessons" should have been ideal considering those parameters, my "it must be perfect the first time" outlook, was less than ideal for my yarn-wrangling progress.

last month, my husband insisted on keeping the kids for a long weekend and sent my girlfriend and me away for a few days of rest, relaxation, and kid-free quiet. {insert unabashed hubby praises here...he's a keeper, for shore!}
as soon as we had our weekend planned, i begged her to attempt, once again, to teach me crochet...an over-the-weekend crochet boot camp, of sorts.
she agreed...but with a stipulation.
that she would teach me her way...from the beginning.
not just, "let's jump in and make a granny square"...but let's learn how to chain...now let's learn single crochet...now do five rows of single crochet...now let's learn double crochet...and so on...and so on...

i likened it to this...
if my daughter asked me to teach her to bake, i wouldn't start her out making every kind of pie imaginable.  no.  we'd first learn how to read a recipe...what the ingredients actually are...where they're kept in the pantry...how to preheat the oven...how to grease the pans...
and then we'd bake.  and we'd bake pies and breads and cakes and muffins and cookies and all sorts of goodies. {unless i was on the whole 30 like i am now...because baking all that stuff and not being able to eat it would just be cruel.}
you get the picture, though.
i didn't need to learn how to crochet hearts and granny squares and flowers.  i needed to learn how to crochet.  period.

well, her plan worked.
over the course of the weekend, she taught me several different crochet stitches and how to read/decipher a crochet pattern.  by the end of the weekend, i had finished a washcloth...a "sampler" of sorts of various crochet stitches.  {no pattern, we just winged it.}
i finished the wagon wheel shortly after returning from our weekend away.  {wagon wheel pattern from this book--worth its weight in gold, by the way, and required reading according to my friend...er...teacher} 

i finished the three hearts at the top of this post a week or two ago.
and last week when we did crafternoon together {at my house this time}, i finished this mason jar cozy

and what's really making me chuckle {to keep from crying} is that i started this whole long story so i could post the pattern links here...i've had several people on IG asking what pattern i used for the hearts and the cozy...and i thought it'd just be easiest to direct them to this post...
and now i can't find the heart pattern for the life of me!
i took a screen shot of it on my phone {it wasn't on my pinterest} and that's how i've been working off of the pattern.
and now that i want to find the actual site and link up to it, of course i can't even find it!
oh well...i'll do a bit of searching and post it here as soon as i find it.

in the meanwhile, go learn something interesting.  
it might not be crochet, for you...but muster up a bit of courage and try learning something new.
i've a few other little "learning" projects i'm working on right now...even taking an online class for one of them.
an old dog can learn new tricks!
try it and see.

1 comment:

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