*Fancy That: Gettin' My Craft On

Cooler weather = craft time in my book. During the winter months I find myself craving crafty projects to do in the evenings after we've settled in for the night.

Picking a project was easy. Since we had some upcoming travel weekends I wanted to make sure I had something portable and not too messy. My grandma Bernice was a very talented crocheter and had taught me to crochet when I was really young. Since then, I have always had a soft spot for the craft and it always makes me think of her.

My Grandma Bernice

Unfortunately after my few mini-lessons with her I had forgotten pretty much everything I had learned so I had re-taught myself to crochet a few years ago through some random website tutorials I had found online. I figured I could probably brush up on those again and jump right back into it. So off I headed to the craft store.

Big. Mistake.

I am not one of those people who can go into a craft store and come out with a full project worth of supplies. Oh no. I am one of those people (maybe it's not "people", maybe it's just me....) who goes into a craft store, paces the aisles, feels the fabrics, flips through the books, smells the yarn (ok, maybe not smell, but you get where I'm going) and all of this action soon turns me into an irrational, indecisive lunatic. And before I know it, I am walking out the sliding glass doors with just a glue stick (paid for, of course). And that's it, aside from the traumatized, dazed look in my eyes. No project, no supplies, and any idea I may have had when I entered the store has completely disappeared. So I'm stuck with just one random thing that is useless on it's own. The entire experience is actually very similar to my grocery shopping (you can read more about that here).

So of course the same thing happened when I went to get my crochet supplies. I went over my lunch break and I had a few rough ideas for projects in mind but as soon as I entered the store my ideas started to multiply and I couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted to make.

(You're probably thinking, "Seriously? she stressing over crocheting!?" Believe me. I've had the same thought myself.)

I think part of my problem is that I have such a limited about of time for crafty projects that when I decide to do one, it must be The-Best-Project-Ever, because who wants to waste their time on a so-so project? So ~~needless~~ needle-less (get it?) to say, I left the store with no supplies (and no more glues sticks, thank goodness) and feeling more defeated by the idea of crocheting than any human ever should. Seriously, I have a problem.

After work, I regrouped, marched into the store and just bought 3 balls of yarn that I liked. I decided I would go solely based on my gut and just buy what made me happy. I would figure out the projects later. I guess you could say this method worked because I managed to leave the store with supplies and only mild psychological damage. Then I searched and searched for some ideas on Pinterest.com (you can see my stash of crochet tutorials, patterns and inspiration here.)

The project I picked was none other than the ever-exciting wash cloth! (Que the whomp-whomp sound effect.) Yes, I know. The fact that I'm crocheting is bad enough, but then I have to go and make a wash cloth? You bet!!

At that point, I truly didn't care what I made, as long as I finally had a project in my hands. So here they are (I made 2) in all their glory.

I used two different patterns. The first (top, in the above picture) was from a how-to-crochet book that was thoughtfully given to me by Jake's great aunt when I was on a previous crochet kick (she must have seen a day like this coming).