February is Crochet month

Yesterday I attended a Crochet course at Love Yarn in Andover. www.loveyarn.com 

Its a 4 week course so I will be there for 2 hours every Saturday morning in Feb.

The course is led by a very patient lady called Jill who brought a few examples of crochet for us to see

 

Traditional edging, like lace

A Handbag made using various crochet stitches and styles

 

 

Another handbag using a basic crochet stitch and chunky wool

 

 

Tiny purse

                                                                      Flower

Hopefully at the end of the course we will have the basic skills required to make these things.

We started with the basic Granny Square, first I made a chain stich of 6 stitches, then joined it to make a circle, from there I chain stiched 3 then made a triple stitch, which loops in and out of the circle. I made 12 triples

This is all really fiddly and I got my yarn caught quite a few times. Once you have made the 12 triple stitches you can build up with every round. The triple stitches bunch into 3's then the next row is built up using the gaps between the 3 stitches. So I did 3 triples, chained stitched 2 (to make the gap) then made 3 more triples all into the same gap building up a corner. I did this in all 4 gaps to make...

The next row has 8 gaps, so 2x 3 triples in the corners and 1x 3 triples 

in the middle make up the next row and so on and on with each row until you get.....

So for this week I will be perfecting the Granny Square, I expect to have enough to sew together for a small blanket at the end of the week but it is good practise in how to use the hook and to get comfortable with it.

I can highly recommend Love Yarn in Andover, they run fantastic courses including sock making, finishing and felt work but most importantly they are happy to help with any problems and always have the kettle on. Any shop that greets me with the opening line " Hello love, do you want a cuppa?" is going to be a great shop!

After the class had finished the shop owner Fiona sat with me and showed me how to finish the owl jumper which still had gaps under the arms and holes where I hadn't picked up all my stitches. My jumper is now ready to wear, I am just waiting on my buttons order. 

So on with the granny squares, I have made a good start....