Before We go Forward...

...I may as well tell you what brought me here.

My grandmother taught me to crochet.  I would watch her make beautiful baby sets (booties, bonnet, blanket), or work on afghans and I asked her if she would teach me,  When I was ten, she told me she would teach me that summer. 

The first thing I ever made was what I call "elf slippers."  You single crochet a square and then you sew one side and a little up a second.  You get pointy-toed slippers with a pointy fold-down flap. I made a pair for myself and a pair for my siblings.  The next summer, I learned to read patterns and I made my first afghan - a granny square afghan from my grandmother's scrap yarn.

A short while later, my older sister was expecting her first baby.  I made him a blanket.  Little did I know how that commitment would keep me busy for the next.... seventeen years. 

But I'm going to pause for a minute.  There's another thread to this story that should be woven in about now. 

My little sister was also curious about crochet the summer I learned, but her fingers weren't up to the task of holding yarn and hook and chain, and she gave up.  She never did try to learn again from my grandmother.  But after growing up, she took interest in the fiber arts.  She started with a square loom, and one day I got a text, "How do you join two squares?"  So I texted her pictures and directions for how I join two squares.  A few weeks later, "What do you do after the starting chain?" and again I send her text and pictures.  Within a few months, she's sending me pictures of hats, cozies, leggings, headbands, afghans...

My sister's a rockstar!  I didn't know you could do all of that with crochet!

Needless to say, as I was completing my fourteenth and possibly final baby blanket for a nephew, I started to drool over the other projects and squares and crochet that my sister was sharing via Facebook.  I made a few squares... and then....

I joined the Sunset Family Living NICU Charity Challenge.

I'm taking part in the 2015 Moogly CAL.

I joined Look at what I Made's Sophies Universe CAL.

These crochet experiences have given me new skills, connected me with some awesome and talented artists, and provided me with a lot of inspiration! 

I think I might just design some crochet!