My Creative Space...

...this week is a lesson in perseverance. As you may remember, I have been trying to master the art of crochet, for quite some time now. I fell in love with the Granny Shrug, printed out Lara's pattern, dilligently read Kirsty's fab instructions, purchased some Paton's Wilderness in Mulberry and a rather large hook, and have practiced and practiced. All I seem to make is a big pile of Mulberry Tangles. I have finally come to the disappointing realisation that I suck at crochet.

Determined not to be the biggest loser in the yarn battle, I have taken up a new weapon. I learnt to knit as a teenager, and to be honest, I wasn't very good at it. Probably because I found it a bit boring and time consuming, when really, I much preferred to spend my time at my besty's place, crimping my hair, dancing madly to 'Papa Don't Preach' and singing into a hairbrush.

These days my priorities seem to have changed somewhat (thank goodness, I hear you say), and the thought of sitting quietly, enjoying the rythmic click clack of the knitting needles seems like heaven on a stick. Okay, so I haven't knitted for...a really long time, and when I did knit, I never actually completed anything, but nothing was going to stop me now!

...except when my stitches strayed so far that the pattern was barely recognisable. This was how far I got on my first attempt before deciding to unravel and start again. And let me tell you, I don't knit very fast, so this attempt took me hours. Unravelling it was awful.

My second attempt was unravelled before I'd invested quite so much time:

Can you see the big hole and tangle where a stitch is supposed to be?

Here's my third attempt right before I unravelled it: 

Honestly, who thought that knitting a scarf would be so difficult??? It's almost enough

to make a girl dig out her Best Of Madonna CD from storage.

Okay, so I persevered. Which is not something I usually do. I'm more of a 'do it perfectly the first time or don't bother at all' kind of gal. Which, all in all, is not a very productive attitude. So here I am, in my creative space, persevering. And actually enjoying it a little...

For more creative spaces, visit Kirsty, who's a whiz with yarn and hook.

Feeling much better

Thank you for the lovely messages about my unfortunate accident (and resulting Dedicated Crafter Award).

So now an update. Since neither the doctor's office or the hospital has called me with any results from my x-rays, I am presuming that my foot is not actually fractured. Or possibly this is simply our overworked and underfunded public health system at its finest. Do you think either Julia or Tony are at all interested in my x-rays? Either way, my foot seems to be improving (coincidentally, my disposition seems also somewhat improved after two days of lying about on the couch watching bad daytime tv and eating Tim Tams).

I am afraid I have been failing miserably at keeping my blog up to date, so will endeavour to bring you up to speed with all the latest goings on here at D4C during the next few days.

I have a few lovely balls of Patons Wilderness and a 15mm hook in hand to finally have a crack at Kirsty's Granny Shrug. Hope you too are enjoying a cosy winter's evening by the fire, maybe with some handcraft to keep you company.

Kirsty's Granny Shrug

 I was super impressed when I saw the Granny Shrug that Kirsty has whipped up over at Kootoyoo, and I'm looking forward to the tutorial she has very kindly promised to share.

This morning Kirsty set a little shopping list for the Granny Shrug. Oooh, I read it with great excitement and amidst visions of whipping up my own gorgeous Shrug was grabbing the car keys to go buy some supplies, when...darn it...common sense crept in...only momentarily, of course, but long enough for me to glance in the direction of my pile of UFO's. Which seems to currently be a decent size (by which I mean I can't get to the craft cupboard due to the enormous pile of projects in varying states of completion which is blocking the way. I'm keeping Cheese Boy well away lest it actually topple and bury him, never to be seen again).

Not even rating a mention is the fact that I can barely crochet, and have yet to complete more than one granny square. I'm never one to let lack of experience/knowledge/ability get in the way of crafting fun!

Flea Market Finds

Today I'm joining in with Sophie's lovely Sunday Meme, Flea Market Finds. I am lucky enough to live across the road from a great little Op Shop, and love to pop my head in and scout for new treasures when I'm walking to the shops to get milk. It's a tiny, poky little shop, I can barely get the pram in the front door, but I always find a little treasure or two to take home.
This week I found this little bundle of goodies for the princely sum of $2.

Two gorgeous vintage books; I especially love Johnny and Sophie by the river, it's too divine. A little bag of assorted Anchor perle embroidery threads and the three rolls at the bottom of the picture are Crochet threads, perfect for when I master my Granny!

Thanks Sophie for hosting this delightful Meme. For more finds, pop over to Sophie's place.

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.

Learning something new

A couple of weeks ago on my weekend away, my Mum very patiently tried to teach me the basics of Crochet. It seemed simple enough, and the instructions were clear. I'm actually finding it's a bit tricky - sshh, don't tell anyone. I'll keep practising.