It's not just your grandma's doillies...a giveaway

This giveaway is now closed. Winners will be announced momentarily.

I taught myself to crochet...about thirty-five years ago. At the time, I didn't know a single soul who knew how to crochet and could teach me. But I wanted to learn. I recall that I wanted to learn how to make tiny little baby booties.


See this little book? This was published in 1955.
I bought this little book in the early 70's.
I learned everything I know about crochet from this one little book.
I can make anything that a crochet pattern has ever been written for.



Last Saturday, using a couple of ounces of leftover pink yarn,
I whipped out a sweet little stocking cap for Avery.
It took two hours. How sweet is that?



Then I whipped out another one, using pink eyelash yarn.
Little girls love, love sparkly foofoo things like this.
I know this because I made all the little girls in my daughter Mandy's
third grade class a stocking hat like this one, a couple of years ago.
Mandy's little students think her mom rocks. LOL

I clipped a little how-to article from the Rocky Mountain News, in 1982. A woman named Pat did a weekly column and for the life of me, I can no longer remember the name of it, but I vividly remember the day she published this pattern. I couldn't begin to tell you how many times I've used this. It's so simple and easy, I thought I'd share it with you.


SIMPLE STOCKING CAP

"When visiting us, our daughter-in-law, Debbie, discovered that she hadn't brought a warm cap for our grandson, Kevin. So she asked me if I had some spare yarn and a crochet hook.

After I gathered the materials, Debbie whipped out a darling little ribbed stocking cap in just a couple of hours. I was intrigued with the shaping of the cap, so I asked her to show me how she did it.

She used worsted weight yarn and a size J hook, but you could use any yarn you wish with a hook size suitable for your choice of yarn.

First, work a chain for the desired length of the cap from top to bottom, plus an extra inch or two for a turned-back cuff. Try working a chain of about 10 inches. You can adjust the length of your chain to make various-size caps. The entire cap is done in single crochet worked through the back loop of each stitch.

For the first row, work a single crochet in the second chain from the hook and in each remaining chain. Chain 1 and turn. On Row 2, work a single crochet in each stitch of the previous row to within 4 stitches. Chain 1, turn.

For Row 3, single crochet to the end of the row. Chain 1, turn. Row 4: Work a single crochet in all stitches, including the skipped stitches of Row 2. Chain 1, turn. Row 5: Single crochet to end of row. Chain 1, turn. Place a safety pin at the end of this row. Repeat rows 2 through 5 over and over until cap is wide enough to fit around head.

The end marked by the pin will be the bottom of the cap, which will be the end you will want to have wide enough to fit around the head. When the desired width is reached, end with the completion of Row 3 of the pattern and sew the side edges together.

With worsted-weight yarn you can get a cap out of approximately 2 ounces of yarn. If you have a lot of leftover yarn, you could stripe the cap by changing colors on every fourth row."


Does that sound like Greek to you? I can't tell you how easy it is to learn to crochet. But maybe I can help a couple of you, if this is something you think you'd like to learn.


A GIVEAWAY


I'd like to give a little starter kit, to two people.
I'm including the way newer version of the little book I learned from (published in 2001), a size "I" crochet hook and a skein of very pretty peach-colored Vanna's Choice medium weight yarn.

About three years ago, Mandy and several of her girlfriends asked me to teach them to crochet. At the time, fun fur scarves were all the rage and they wanted to learn how to make them. So every Sunday afternoon they came to my house and oh my word, what fun we had. They all learned the basics of crochet well enough to make themselves scarves.

That's when I discovered working with a heavier weight smooth yarn and using a larger sized hook is best for learning. You can move on to the crazy adorable textured yarns after you learn the basics. And just for the record, you can also move on to the tiniest, lightest weight yarn and the microscopic hooks, known as "steels," if you want to make a doilie. Which I have also been known to do. LOL

If you're interested in learning to crochet and this little kit would motivate you to jump in and do it, leave a comment. I'll leave this giveaway open until the beginning of next week.



As for me? I'm going right back to my 1955 how-to book.
Page 28. "How to Knit."

Because, you know. You're never ever too old to learn a new skill.


For the record, the little book I bought so many years ago actually teaches crochet, knitting, tatting, and embroidery. The newer edition, the one I'm giving away, is devoted entirely to crochet.

Last Friday night I finished reading The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. This idea for a giveaway popped into my mind while I was reading that book. I won't do a review here but I will say two things. It's a wonderful book, warm and cozy and just a really nice read. And it reminded me that some feminine arts transcend time and should never be lost.