Look What I Made!

When I was not quite 9 years old, my family took a trip to California. My Grandma Potter joined us on the journey and she brought her crochet stuff with her to pass the long hours. By the time we were headed back home I had sat watching her work for quite some time and finally decided I wanted to give it a try. Grandma seemed absolutely delighted that I was showing an interest in one of her favorite hobbies. She gave me some extra yarn and a hook and gave me a very basic crochet lesson before she turned me loose to practice while she went back to her work. A little while later she happened to glance over to see my progress and expressed her surprise that I had caught on so quickly. She showed it to my mom who also seemed surprised. And after the lofty praise I received from both, I was "hooked". (Pun intended.) After that first experience, I had a few more formal lessons from my mom (my first attempt was impressive but far, far from good, much less perfect), and eventually I made my first baby afghan. Over the years I have improved quite a lot and added dishcloths and scarves to my small repertoire, but I've never tried anything truly difficult and usually stick with the patterns that say Beginner on them. My guess is, I will continue to stick with those easy patterns since they are super cute and I can do them without a ton of counting or major attention to detail. I mostly just like to keep my hands busy when we are watching TV or something.

Well, last year we aquired some really darling crocheted hats out of a box at the hospital where Kayleigh was staying. Lynnsey got a cute pink and white one and Kaya got a little purple and pink one complete with a pink flower. Both girls get compliments whenever they wear their hats and people always ask me if I made them for them. I always wish I could say yes! Anyway, Lynnsey's best friend absolutely adores Lynnsey's pink and white hat and Lynnsey, who knows I can crochet and therefore figures I must be able to make anything, told her friend that I would make her one for Christmas! So I decided to give it a try by using Lynnsey's hat as a model and I found out that making hats is not as hard as I had always assumed it would be. This is the hat I managed to make for Lynnsey's friend: It was so much fun and so satisfying to make something and have something to show for it so quickly that I decided to try a few more. So I made some for me:

And finally, the other day I was trying to figure out what kind of gift to get for the little girl I babysit because she honestly has EVERYTHING. She is an only child and is extremely spoiled by her doting parents. It was as I was pulling Kaya's little flower hat off of Lilly's head for the hundreth time (to keep it from getting too stretched out by her much larger noggin), that I had the idea of making her a flower hat of her own. I knew it would be a much harder project, especially the little crocheted flower, but I decided to give it a try. I ended up having to start over about 4 different times because I couldnt' get the size quite right, but finally it came together. When it was finished a relatively short time later, I decided that I had reached the pinnacle of my crochet career! Seriously. I've made some very nice blankets and dishcloths and scarves and even those other hats you see above. But this little hat is probably the cutest thing I've ever made. Sorry to toot my own horn, but really it is:

Isnt' that adorable? I can't get over it! I want to make another one but I'm afraid to try for fear I won't be able to measure up to this one. I'm sure Lilly, at 2 years old will not appreciate all of my work and effort, but hopefully she'll catch on pretty quickly how cute it is!

Oh, and my apologies for the way I always have to give a whole life history for one tiny little blog entry. I should have just said "Look what I made!" and have done with it. Ah, well. Now you know more about my history with crocheting than you could ever possibly want to know. And aren't you just so glad for that (useless) information? Actually it's just my way of procrastinating all the stuff I really need to be doing to get ready for Christmas: gift wrapping, sending packages, the newsletter....*sigh*...guess I'd better get back to it all.