Relaxing By Crocheting

I was taught to crochet by my aunt when I was in my teens. I've never found anything more relaxing to do, aside from maybe drawing/painting.

It requires a crochet hook, not two pointy needles, like in knitting. I never could get knitting down to where I felt relaxed. You have to count too much. Being dyslexic counting continuously becomes---well, I forget where I am! And the pointy needles could get dangerous where I'm concerned!

With crocheting, I can sometimes go along, and actually not be looking at the work itself. Depends on what it is, of course. And there are some very easy patterns. If you have basic knowledge of crocheting, you can work on what's called a "granny square" and make a beautiful blanket. I've made several. One I made last winter is something like 9 feet by 9 feet and it's all granny squares sewed together. It took me three months to make, but you know, while you make an afghan, you stay warm, so there's a real up side to working on one at night when the wind is blowing and you're trying to stay warm in an over 100-year old farm house.

The Basic Granny square:

If you have the basic techniques down (chain, single crochet, double crochet, slip stitch), you can make the above square.

You begin with a slip knot. After this you make a circle. I use what's referred to as a "magic circle", doing the slip knot, chain 4 and then double crochet into that fourth chain from hook. Now you make another double crochet (dc) into the same chain. At this point, you've made what's called "a cluster". Now, chain 3. Then, make three double crochets (dc) into this same chain, and three more chains (ch). Second cluster made, you make a third cluster of dc, and another chain. Do one more cluster, chain 3 again and then slip stitch into the top of the chain of your beginning.

If you've made it this far, you've got the beginning of a granny square. From this point, you can do just about anything. You can change your colors, making sure to leave about an inch of the last color to weave in after you've clipped it. Or, if you want, you can keep going with the same color for a larger piece.

Look at this one I'm making, only I'm not using white as in following photo, but a very light blue.

You basically keep going around. The corner is made by doing 3 dc, ch 3, and 3 dc. Then, chain 1 and make the 3 dc in the next ch 1 space.

There are more variations on this basic square than you can throw yarn at. I mean, only this morning I made a hear-shaped one. But I had to dismantle the woman's pattern, because it wasn't working for me.

If you look closely, you can see the basic granny square in the middle.

Anything that isn't a basic granny square is called a "motif", because it's different. Sometimes it's a circle, and it becomes a flower. But let's face it, nothing's more simple than the granny square.

With the above square I'm working on I may make a nice spring afghan. I haven't got enough yarn to even complete more than 3 or 4 squares right now, but I wouldn't mind working on this, along with my other projects.

There are lots of places to learn how to crochet. You can find video tutorials, if that's something you'd like to look into. Here is one place where you can do that, and they always have free ebooks, which is where I get most of my patterns.

I've found more and more sites where they post about crocheting patterns and I'll never run out of patterns. I can barely make all the ones I've got now. But I like to collect new ones. I'm talking about making hats, scarves, cowls (you know, those popular slouchy scarves that hang around the neck), and other things. I don't mind a challenge, it's the only way to learn, but when I find something that doesn't work, I try and re-work it for myself.

Okay, good talk!

Introductions are in order

Hello, my dears. If you are not a regular follower of my other blogs, and have come here thinking I'm your normal everyday housewife who is into crocheting, you are only partly right. I'm actually an author of vampire ebooks. Vampire Ascending is the first book of the Sabrina Strong series, series (there are four published all together and hopefully a fifth one soon). Well, you can read my information on my side-bar. I'm quite weird, actually, but I'm not an ax murderess, nor am I into Goth at all, but I do march to a different drummer. But we'll get to that.

Wait, here I am, this is an actual photo of me at one of my book signings.

Lorelei with her first self-published book "Spell of the Black Unicorn"
and third in the Sabrina Strong series "Vampire Nocturne"

And in case you doubt that I've had a book signing in an actual bookstore, the following picture proves it.

Lorelei in the DeKalb Borders with first in Sabrina Strong book
"Vampire Ascending"

Well, now that we've established that, I will say that I've been writing all my adult life. I've also gone into crafts at certain points in my life, and I did pretty well. But, I never worked at both things at the same time. Since my Sabrina Strong series has a pretty good foot hold, and I've just about finished the 8th book in series, and have done a few other books, I felt I needed a little break from it and last winter, after discovering 2 boxes of yarn in a closet from way back when I crocheted, I decided to make a couple of lapghans, and one became a very large granny square afghan that got a little out of hand. It's something like 8 feet by 8 feet! But I had a lot of yarn and I just couldn't stop myself from making the granny squares. Well, that's how it all started. Aside from the fact last year was the coldest, longest lasting winter we've had in northern Illinois in decades, I began working on these projects in the afternoon, just to keep warm, if nothing else.  I didn't know that my hands would be able to work the crochet hook, since I was having some pain in them. But a year later, I have almost no pain at all in my hand joints, and I've made several afghans, and smaller projects since. I've been working on fingerless gloves--or hand-warmers. I wear a soft pair to bed, to warm my hands up. Boy, you wouldn't think these things would do the job, but they do! I have to take them off in the middle of the night because I'm too warm. They're great for driving, too.

Anyway, about 20 years ago, I worked in a craft store and did crafts non-stop. I didn't write back then--I took a 4-year hiatus--but got back into writing when I found I'd missed it. I made a check every month from the crafts, but found that that money more or less went right back into the crafts. I did nearly every craft I wanted to do, since I'm an art major and could paint I painted on wood and glass, I also worked in molding clay, plus I crocheted in thread and made a great deal of money on the lovely Christmas doilies I made. Not sure I'll get into the small string crocheting again. But I might dabble in it at some point. And I'm thinking of doing the mason jar/candle again. I also painted on Coke bottles, and they were a hot item--absolutely flew out the door and I had orders all the time. I couldn't drink Coke fast enough! I had to buy a six-pack of the glass bottles and offer them to my friends to drink so I could paint the outside. It ended when Coke began putting their own pictures on the bottles. My husband seems to think they were trying to thwart my efforts at making a profit, but I think they get enough $$ they didn't need to stop little ol' me from making $6/bottle.

One thing I found was that yarn is very expensive now than it was 20 years ago. So all that yarn I'd found last year went toward some nice warm afghans for us. I've begun more, now, with the nicer yarns you find at Hobby Lobby, and I've found that Red Heart has some good quality yarns now, too. The Lion Brand is really nice for making the cowls women are into. I also just finished a nice scarf for my husband--it actually wasn't going to be for him, but when he saw the colors-navy, burgundy, and gray, he seemed to like it. Since he has no scarf, I made it specifically for him.

So, that's my story. If you follow me in my endeavors of my crocheting, great. If you want to check out my ebooks--wonderful!

All for today. I've gotta go make lunch!