Team Hooker - Welcome to the Hotel Crochetfornia

[SoupDragon]

You can check in but you can never leave...

My mum taught me when i was 6, I'm now 30 :)

I like nice dk weight wool and 6" squares, plenty to get a grip on!

I don't wrap my yarn round my fingers like Pidj. No idea what I do but it isn't that :o

I taught myself to crochet last July. What I found helped me get into the rhythm of it was doing a giant granny square - I just kept going and the repetition of it helped with the technique of hook and wool manipulation and also helped with tension I think.

I started this July and last night was the first time I've ever st with anyone else to do it. She was a novice though so the evening consisted of me showing her how I do it and then saying 'but I'm not sure if that's right, that's just how I do it!' Repeatedly. And I don't hold my wool like Pidj either.

Thanks Soupy. That's what I thought and why I'm doing a granny blanket. I'm getting better at the individual squares but not so good at the join as I go. But I'll keep practising...

Yes, somersaults, already one of my friends has asked if I'll show her how to do it. And I'm not sure I can do it myself!!!

Someone clever said (up thread maybe?) that crochet was more forgiving than knitting and that's one of the reasons I LOVE it!

It's like childbirth - the important bit is the end result, not the process of achieving it

I totally agree about the more forgiving thing, it really is. I hold my wool differently as well, one loop round little finger, under my hand and out between thumb and forefinger.

Theodora - I came to the Winchester meet up and would happily do so again but not for a few weeks as I am recovering from surgery. If you are near there I would heartily recommend our venue C&H fabrics as a shop for all your crocheting requirements, it's at the bottom of the High Street near Next.

My yarn holding involves my middle finger I think... I can't actually remember without wool and hook in my hand :) I think I hold the item where I 'm working between thumb and forefinger so that rules out those for yarn holding...

Crochet is definitely very forgiving. There are always mistakes somewhere in my things but usually no one would be able to spot them.

Thanks WhoKnows. I'm in Oxfordshire, so just over an hour to Winchester. Let me know when you feel up to it. Is it alright to bring a two year old to these things?

Two year olds fine if you think they'll be happy. C&H has a nice coffee shop as well as lots of woolly wool. There's a park nearby too which my DCs love. The problem with meetups seems to be finding a time which fits round everyone's work and school commitments.

I'm about an hour from Winchester too, normally. But I'm in France until about April, so would love a spring meet-up too!

Poncho finished (just waiting for nieces final measurements to check whether another row or two is needed), so am about to start next project - kitchen set for my sister for Christmas (or maybe her birthday, which is later) - egg cosies, tea cosy, cafetierre cosy, trivit & pot holder. Phew.

I have no idea how far I am from Winchester but I am an antisocial old toad and don't go to this sort of thing :o

I have just received a "book" called 101 Stitches to Crochet, edited by Erika Knight, which I bought from Ebay. It is actually a flip top box containing cards which show you how to do (I assume) 101 different stitches.

One side of the card (A5 ish) is a close up photo of what the stitch looks like as a swatch which is great. I've not worked through any of them yet to say what the instructions are like but I am anticipating some future fun making squares for assorted blankets :)

Ooops, just picked up my work, that's not how I hold my wool after all . One loop round little finger then over the tips of the other three, thumb and forefinger hold the work and middle finger flips the wool over the hook.

Right... my yarn goes up between little and ring finger and then over ring finger... er.. actually I still can't remember now I've put the item down

Hold your yarn how you find it most comfortable/easy to use. I find I can't wrap round my finger at all. I do the following:
The yarn from the thing I'm making goes over my index finger, under the next two fingers, then over my little finger to the ball. It's literally just over/under, no wrapping round.

Oh and I should add, I hold the work with my thumb and middle finger and lift the yarn over the hook with my index finger.

Have seen people do allsorts in my workshops...including holding the yarn in the same hand as the hook (v experienced knitter who just couldn't get used to holding it in the other hand!!!)

I think I do what Crafty does - so that's good! Where do you run your workshops, Crafty?

(Does anyone else start humming Hotel California everytime they open this thread? )

riversmeetcraftcafe.wordpress.com/ is where I do the workshops. To make a long story shorter, basically I met the owner years ago when I did a college evening class in sewing and she was the tutor. Lack of funding meant she moved the group to a hall instead, then about 18 months ago she was made redundant from her main day job. So she sold her family home and put the money together to buy an old pub and did it up to be a cafe with craft rooms and a little shop and she asked if I'd be interested in teaching some workshops.

Wow, that looks gorgeous. Wish we lived near as would love to go on a crochet course and eat cake! Very reasonably priced as well. What a great venture, hope it's doing well for the owner.

How are everyone's projects going? I've finished one hat and nearly done another, plus my mini hug. Got 2 weeks to do MrsY's blanket

My Granny stripe blanket is coming along nicely, i've done about 38 rows. Haven't done any for a few days, need to get back to it. It's getting a bit unwieldy now.

They do that, i find turning the heating down helps!

I've started hooking together my mini hug blanket - it's made up of hexagonal blocks and will be the biggest thing I have ever crocheted. And I have worked out how to hook it together. [proud]