And so I Began Crochet

When I was about 9 years old my grandmother started crocheting adorable creatures for the school’s prize box. They were very popular and were always the first toys in the prize box to be chosen. Everybody loved the crochet creatures my grandmother made, including me.

I fell so much in love with them that I wanted to start creating my own crochet animals. The whole idea of creating my own toys excited me. My grandmother was eager to help me learn how to crochet. With hopes high, I began to learn how to create my own crochet creatures.

It wasn’t easy learning how to crochet. It had moments of frustration as my grandmother, who is a left-handed, taught me, a right-hander, the basic stitches.

But we started simple with the easiest crochet stitch: the chain. Using only this stitch I created THE LONGEST EVER CROCHET CHAIN IN THE UNIVERSE!!! I was SO proud of that long raspberry chain.

The next stitch I learned was the most important one: the single crochet. This stitch is what you will see when looking at a basic crochet animal. They are the Vs that make up about 99% of the crocheted creature.

Even though this stitch is most common in crocheted animals, I didn’t begin learning the single crochet stitch by creating the round shapes seen in stuffed animals. Instead I worked back and forth in rows with single crochet, creating boring plain rectangles. The shape may have been boring but it was certainly not easy.

If you are a crocheter, you know that when working in rows you have to turn the crochet work after each row is complete. Something about this was very tricky to understand with our dominant hands being opposite.

Even though it was difficult, we each persevered, me with learning and my grandmother with teaching, and I finally understood this new stitch and how to work in rows.

Now, I love a good challenge and creating a stuffed animal was the next hurdle I wanted to overcome. In fact, creating cute animals was was the sole reason I began to crochet. I was done with creating boring useless rectangles! My calling was in making cute lifelike animals.

But at this point I had never actually followed a pattern before. I had no clue how to start crocheting in a circle and was too eager to make my first animal that I didn’t bother learning how.

Doing a bunch of unconventional crochet techniques I managed to start my first circular crochet project. It was a white rabbit like creature that appeared in my favorite movie, “My Neighbor Totoro.”

Gradually I began to improve my crochet and learned the correct way to start a crochet circle as well as a bunch of other stitches and techniques.

Since then, I have created around 100 patterns, won several Best of Show ribbons at the State Fair, and have made numerous creatures as presents for my family.

I hope to continue to improve my crochet and my blogging skills.