Retrospective; Hooking

In terms of chronology, this seems the right point in the retrospectives to introduce crochet. It was at this time in July 2011 that I turned to my friend Tom (the wildly talented Tokyo Tombola of http://tokyotombola.wordpress.com/ and various other onlinery) and asked him to teach me to crochet. Over the course of one afternoon of dc (US: sc), I was, no pardon requested for the pun, hooked. I went home, raided my mother's sewing kit for her ancient 6mm hook and made myself three bookmarks in an evening. By the end of my lunch break on the following day at work, I had patterns for simple amigurumi dolls and instructions on new stitches to practise. I headed straight from the office to a fairly local craft store and bought more wool and hooks, and by the end of my first week I could do pretty much everything I wanted to do- doll making, more complicated stitches (triple and quadruple crochet (in US terms anyway- Tom taught me in English but I learnt on my own in American. I am fairly good at translating now), even beginning to be able to plan my own simple patterns. I was pleased, and proud, beyond belief, despite teasing from my brother that I was becoming an old lady. Though polish and finesse would come with practise, clearly I had a knack for this.

I had tried knitting in the past, and whilst it is very relaxing, I never felt like I was getting anywhere with it. I can knit, and purl, and that is about it. I can't read knitting patterns and I find that a quick payoff is more likely to tie down my butterfly mind to a hobby. With crochet, I picked it up fast, and I went home from my first lesson with Tom with a bookmark. I had made something, and I could see my errors melting away, my stitches becoming beautiful and even. Within weeks I had made my first doll, and my first scarf. A gift and an item of clothing. I never got anywhere near that far with knitting, not even after months. I don't know why. Perhaps that is the next request I'll send Tom's way. Please, Tom, teach me to knit even a little like you!

Around this time, my current employers contacted me to offer me my current job, so I handed in my notice at work, and was counting the days until my new, exciting career (from a PA in a small firm to part of a team in for a huge global company, working on vastly interesting clients). My boss' wife, who was my occasional coworker, was heavily pregnant at the time with their son, and with my new found talent, I decided to make them a present as a thank you for the employment (I entered that job from poverty, after a year on benefits after being made redundant- a quite low period of my life), and as a way to congratulate them on their future son. A quick rummage online found a booties pattern on Lion Brand (lionbrand.com/patterns/70225AD.html if you are interested), and got to work.

Now, whatever you think of Lion Brand, they have a lot of material available for free, though some of it has errors. For an experienced crocheteer (hooker? I don't think either of these phrases are correct, but I am going with them, dangnammit) it is probably a bit simple and plain, and the errors that crop up altogether too often are down right infuriating, but for a beginner it is a good place to start. There are some fabulous tutorials on stitches and reading patterns based on their patterns online (my first and the one I would highly recommend can be found here: http://www.visualcrochet.com/how_to_crochet_a_giraffe.html (please note this is in US crochet, as are the patterns at Lion Brand)).

Back to the booties. I sat down to watch the grand prix with my mother one Sunday and finished one. Now I could churn one of these out a lot quicker, but at the time this was one of my first crochet projects and I was still getting used to the different terminologies, and really any crochet that didn't involve basic horizontal rows. The second took several days in shifts; lunch breaks, while waiting to xollect an order from the printers... Finally they were done, and on time, so when I took my boss' wife home for the very last time, I handed over a pair of homemade machine washable booties, and wished her my best. She was touched. Homemade presents really are the best.