It’s a Crocheting Summer

Summer has hit + it's time for me to pick up a new skill! Join me as I learn how to Crochet, this summer!

I had tried knitting over the winter, and I made a few blankets for the kids, but I was feeling like I wanted to see what crocheting was all about. I'm so glad I did because I just love ❤️ it! I wanted to share with you how I started.

Learning to Crochet with the help of YouTube

I started with learning the basic stitches and how it works, all on YouTube of course, and I found some great ? tutorials on crocheting, and being completely new to this I had no idea of all the awesome ? things you can make with this skill!

First simple project: A Flat Coster in the Round

Ok, so this technically is not a simple first place to start, I know that now, but I went for something I was curious about, and liked the look of.  I went for a flat circle coaster, with the help of YouTube tutorials from BellaCoco. I just enjoy listening to her videos and I have learned a huge deal from her, and I also really like the UK terms for crochet. :) After spending two days really obsessed with learning how to hold the yarn, and work on my tension and how to do the stitches, I was really happy with what I had learned and I had a coaster! When my son saw that it was a circle, he thought, oh mom can you make a ball?

Ok, a Ball, let's see what that's like

So I started to try a ball. This is when I learned that counting is a huge thing when it comes to crocheting, and following the pattern plan. After doing a few of these balls, I realized that if I could write down the basic pattern, how many rows, and things like that, I could keep it straight. It ended up turning out pretty good and I used yarn to stuff it with. I made 3 balls for the kids. Ideally, you want to use a polyester stuffing, but it's what I had on hand. I learned this from YouTube tutorials from BerlinCrochet.After I made a couple of these really fun balls, I began a few other shapes.

A Crochet Heart

The first shape I wanted to try next, was a cute little heart that I ended up sewing on top of one of the balls I had made for my daughter (it sort of looked like a strawberry toy). This heart was a lot of fun! I was working in the round and using trebles, which I had learned how to do with the coaster. This I learned from BellaCoco again!  

Puff Flowers

The next smaller shape project that I tried, after the coaster, ball and heart, was the Puff ? Flowers! BellaCoco was the one I went to again to learn these flowers, and they were more difficult for me, due to the new stitch called the 'puff' stitch. Pulling multiple loops on my hook, that had a grip on the handle, made it hard for me to keep a lot of yarn on my hook, and then having to pull the yarn through all of the loops, I had to start and stop over and over again with these petals! But, I did manage to work through it and came out with three pretty flowers.Learning how to crochet for me, has been a fun and enjoyable time, while my other roles of the homeschool mom are slowing down a bit with summer holidays and I was really wanting to find the time for myself. The hope also was to help my daughter learn how to crochet, down the road, once I learned how. I did not have a grandma who could teach me, but I was not going let that stop me! The learning stage does require some persistence and time, and I hope to continue to try new projects and learn more so that it does become a natural thing where I can sit back and whip up a cute toy or dishcloth while the kids play Minecraft, or while we watch the food network or Netflix.Thanks for visiting guys! As I go along with crocheting this summer, I will keep sharing more individual posts about each of my new projects on the bog and on Instagram, which you can follow me on as well.Till next time,Breathe deeply and enjoy building your masterpiece with scissors and glue!~Alexandra