Being Mrs C

Gifts for myself

I'm guilty of a little bit of indulgence this last weekend. I had some money on a internet based credit card that I'd got as a result of a repayment following some fraudulent use of my card. I don't have the pin number for this card, but wanted to use up the money before closing the account. A trip to amazon was therefore in order and I bought some of the books that have been sat on my wish list for a while now.

There's a definite yarn related thing going on with my book choices and I'm really looking forward to going through these over the next few weeks and adding more projects to my to do list.

The best bit - I managed to get all of these for only £1.09 more than the credit I had. Fantastic!

Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef

The first thing that greeted us at the Knitting and Stitching show was the UK reef part of the Institute for Figuring's Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project. I'd missed this when the original reef was at London's Hayward Gallery earlier in the year so was thrilled to be able to see it up close. 

This version was co-ordinated by the Craft Council and was inspired by the original reef's London exhibition. I won't even try to start trying to explain the mathematics behind hyperbolic crochet as it just started to make my head hurt to be honest with you (and that's from me with an A-level in Further Maths)!

The UK reef certainly looked good though, particularly the little creature I found in this bit.

Learning to crochet

I've been wanting to learn how to crochet for ages, so today I took a day off work and did just that.

I'd booked myself a place on a Rowan beginner's crochet course that was held in the Brent Cross John Lewis and had a fantastic time. There were only six of us on the course (they limit the number of places to eight so that enough one-on-one tuition and help can be given) and I found that I was able to learn so much. 

I'd tries teaching my self from a book a couple of times, but after the basic chain I just found myself getting so confused about what to do next. Our trainer explained everything so simply and hence it all now makes sense! We were all provided with a hook and a yarn and were taken through everything from starting chains through to the afghan square that you can see on the right hand side in the above photograph.

Whilst on the course quite a few of us asked about good books to help beginners when they forget the useful things that they learn on the course and also with some nice simple crochet patterns in them. The recommended solution was Erika Knight's Simple Crochet. This book contains some fantastic step by step instructions for learning to crochet, along with some fabulous clear photos of each step. The patterns look fantastic and simple, and use a range of materials instead of just yarn (parcel string, fabric scraps and leather thronging for instance!)

If you're looking for a book to teach yourself then I'd highly recommend this one. I don't think anything quite beats going on a course though and the Rowan one was certainly excellent and also very good value for money.