My 89 year old aunt is a wiz at crafts and I asked her to teach me how to crochet. I wanted to make a blanket for my niece who is expecting her baby any day now. I picked a pattern and bought the yarn. Excited I went to her house and sat while we looked over the pattern. Keep in mind that I am not a very good learner when it comes to reading directions. I find them much too complicated even when they are written in simplist form. I like to watch and then do. My aunt felt that it was important for me to learn the "crochet terminology" and gave me a list of abbreviations to study. Impatiently, I took the list looked it over and memorized them. Ready to get the blanket going, I eagerly sat down ready to create. My aunt wanted me to look over the pattern and read the directions first so I could familiarize myself with what I would be doing. Are you kidding me... Can't we just crochet? I thought I was reading in another language. What the heck does it all mean I wondered. Feeling more impatient, I told her I was ready! We gathered the yarn and she told me to make a chain which I already knew how to do. Feeling positive, I made the chain and then waited for direction. She told me that we needed to start the next row and that's where she lost me. I was confused and couldn't understand what I needed to do. Here is an example of what I was dealing with: Sc in 1 ch then dc in next 6 ch. Ch 3 and Dc, loop around and blah blah blah.
I told her that maybe we would just start with something more simple and I would just do rows with 3 different colors instead of trying to make squares and borders and fancy decorations. I came home disappointed that I didn't have the beginnings of a blanket yet. I searched the internet and found another blanket that I liked, printed the instructions and went over a couple days later for direction. We started the blanket and I was on a roll. I brought my project home to work on and just knew I would have it done in a couple of days. The next day, I sat down to work on the blanket and when I got to the end of the row, I didn't understand the directions. I guess what I had been working on was only the border and now I needed to change the stitches to get the blanket started. Ugh! Another setback. I took it back to my aunts and she looked it over a little perplexed about what the directions wanted us to do next. In a hurry I left and went back later that week only to find that my aunt had taken the blanket apart and restarted it with low and behold no directions. She just crocheted a shell or diamond stitch that she knows and showed it to me. Oh so easy to learn.
Now I was ready to move on and work on my own. I brought the blanket home and worked on it for 1 week determined to finish it before the baby arrived. Finally, last Sunday night, I was so close to finishing it that I stayed up until 2:00am to get it done. Wow! My first blanket. I wanted everyone to see it but I was the only one awake.
Feeling pretty darn proud, I took it to my aunts house to show her last night. I don't think she thought I would finish it and I don't think she thought it would be as good as it turned out. To tell you the truth, I'm a little surprised. After the attempts many years ago and the curvy, crooked looking blankets I tried to make, this one came out pretty darn good. I asked my aunt to look it over and give me a grade. She teased me and tried to find major flaws but only pointed out little things that she pretended were major. In the end, she gave me a passing grade and now I am on a roll.
I have picked out my next project and am determined to learn it. Hopefully, I can master this stitch as well. Oh and as far as the baby, she hasn't arrived yet but will be here very, very soon and will have a pretty blanket to comfort her:)
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