Not To Be Trusted With Knives

Learning to Crochet

September 4, 2023 by Beth

So I’ve mentioned in my last three blog postings that I’m learning how to crochet, so I figured maybe it’s time to write a blog posting about it. I decided I wanted to learn to crochet on this year’s Wine Bitches trip ((And apparently I haven’t written about this year’s Wine Bitches trip, though I’m not sure why I am surprised since I hardly blog these days! I did write about last year’s trip – it’s an annual trip with friends to the Okanagan to tour wineries and generally just hang out.)). My friend Cheryl was crocheting and she’d taught our other friend Cat how to crochet and decided that it was something I wanted to try.

So when we got back from our trip, I bought myself a set of crochet hooks and a few balls of cheap wool to practice with, and then I spent an afternoon on Cheryl’s front porch, drinking some of the wine we’d acquired on our trip and eating cheese and crackers, and Cheryl taught me to crochet.

She also lent me a book called The Happy Hooker, which has instructions on all the different kinds of stitches and a bunch of patterns. So I spent a bunch of time just practicing single crochet, then double crochet, then triple crochet, the slip stitch, the V stitch. There are still a bunch more stitches for me to learn, but I decided this was a good start and maybe it was time to start making some things.

So I learned how to make a circle:

When I was in Toronto visiting my family in June/July, I brought The Happy Hooker and my hooks and my wool so I could practice my crocheting while I was there. My sister knows how to knit and, unbeknownst to me, recently decided she wanted to learn how to crochet too. She gifted me a ball of 100% cotton yarn to use to make my first real thing: a dishcloth! You need to use 100% cotton yarn to make dishcloth because if you use acrylic yarn (which is what I’ve been using as my cheap yarn for practicing), it doesn’t absorb water very well or hold up to the frequent use and washing that a dishcloth goes through.

So I have now crocheted an actual thing (as opposed to just swatches of fabric for the sole purpose of practicing). Behold my dishcloth!

I actually got about two-thirds of the way through making this, but I’d made some mistakes and there were a few big holes where there shouldn’t be big holes. So I ripped it out all the way back to the second row and started again. I figure I still need lots of practice, so it was really just more practice. I’m pretty happy with how this turned out in the end.

I’ve bought myself some more 100% cotton yarn to try making some other styles of dishclothes, but now I have to wait until my stupid elbow gets better to work on them.

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