Round 1

Hurrah! Here is my first completed (if somewhat wonky) round of a Granny Square! Thanks Pip for the very excellent video tutorials, you have completely demystified the art of crochet for me.

(Note: before proceeding, please stand up from your chair and take 3 paces backwards; this picture is best viewed from afar so as to admire the greatness of my overall achievement, and not look too closely at the unevenness of the stitches, the general wonky-ness and the strange 'roundness' of the 'square'! Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.)

My next attempt was somewhat more square looking, but I'm not sure what has happened in the top left corner where I've tried to join up with the start.

Progress

After finding crochet to be mostly frustrating and not at all fun or productive as I was hoping, I was nearly ready to throw in the towel, er, hook. Then I discovered that the wonderful Pip is now head tutor at 'Granny Square School' so I signed up, and I'm away!

Now that I'm holding my yarn correctly (Lesson 2) I'm finding that my chains are much easier to make (Lesson 3).  I'm practising chaining until I'm confident about my tension and technique, then will move onto Lesson 4.

My Place and Yours

I'm joining in with a lovely meme this week called My Place And Yours, formerly hosted by the very crafty Pip, now rehoused at Vic's little corner of blogland :) The theme this week is 'What I'm Reading'.

Here's what I'm trying to read:

I love Jodi Picoult, I've read most of her books. Harvesting the Heart explores the nature of ambivalent motherhood, and is the emotional tale of a new mother, Paige, trying to come to terms with motherhood when she didn't know her own mother. Some of Picoult's descriptions of the overwhelming and confused feelings of a new mother trying to take care of a newborn and feeling completely out of her depth rang so true for me that I wondered if the author had read my diary. I'm loving it. I'd even like to finish it.

Yes, this sophisticated and oh so grown up novel is what I'm trying to read...

This is what I actually end up reading most days at my place:

Not so sophisticated, but funny, sometimes rhyming and definitely noisier! (10 Little Rubber Ducks has a little ducky squeaker inside the back cover, too cute).

10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle is a beautiful tale about a shipment of 10 rubber ducks that gets lost overboard during shipping. The Rubber Ducks each go in different directions, and the last little rubber duck gets adopted by a family of real ducks!

There's a Sea in my Bedroom by Margaret Wild, Illustrated by Jane Tanner tells the story David, a little boy who is frightened of the sea. When David takes a conch shell home, a sea appears in his bedroom and helps David overcome his fears.

Slinky Malinki by Lynley Dodd is a very well worn favourite in our house.

Slinky Malinki was blacker than black,

a stalking and lurking adventurous cat.

He had bright yellow eyes,a warbling wail,

and a kink at the end of his very long tail."

(Yes I can recite the entire book from memory. Don't look so impressed, I have after all been reading it almost daily for the past eight years). Lynley Dodd of course wrote the Hairy Maclary series - if you have young children and you don't know these books, you should!

Thanks Vic for hosting this fun meme!