Freshly Handmade: Learning to Crochet

My husband's aunt Fey came to visit this week. She is a crafter like me so we always have a lot to chat about when it comes cute crafting ideas. I don't get to see her often so I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to learn how to crochet. She has been crocheting for years and has taught many how to as well. I love to knit and have a good understanding of this art. I never really felt the need to learn how to crochet because knitting was my thing and produces such lovely results. Then, I was on Pinterest and came across some really cute crocheted baby blankets, which made me want to at least take a stab at it.

Here is where we started with the basics of single crochet and double crochet, with a couple variations in between. It was a little awkward at first, but I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly.

I told her I wanted to learn how to make a granny square, but after watching her whip this one up out of thin air, I think I will stick to the basics for now.

I've continued to practice a bit with a couple different stitches to find the right combination of needle size, yarn type, stitch pattern and tension. Here is my first practice swatch of single crochet. The colors are fun, but my tension is too tight. It's pretty stiff.

So, I tried another swatch of half double crochets. It's not a big difference in pattern but I do like it. By this time I was a little more relaxed and my tension wasn't so tight. I did have some issues staying straight on the edges though. I don't know if I was distracted by the TV or what, but I must have skipped a few stitches along the way so I had to even it out again. I'll have to work at that one a bit more.

I knew I wanted a nice flexible feel but without big holes, so I went back to the single crochet but used a bigger needle. This is all the further I got, but I really liked the result.

I do want to make a baby blanket or a scarf for myself using good quality yarn. For my samples, I was just using some cotton scrap that I had. Unfortunately, starting that project will have to wait until after the holidays or I will never get my holiday sewing done. I would love to make something as beautiful as the picture you see below, but for now, I will stick to simple stitches.

Thank you aunt Fey for getting me started. She was kind enough to bring us these Regent apples from her own apple trees and some freshly handmade applesauce. Yum!