Valentine's Day and a New Pattern

I usually give Valentines to a couple of my friends each year, and this year I decided I wanted to knit or crochet a little something to go with them. I found these free printable Valentines from the blog on Post Stitch. They all have dorky knitting jokes, and most of my friends knit as well, so I think they will be appreciated. I found a free pattern on Ravelry for a crochet heart which I’ll attach to the front of each Valentine. I don’t crochet much so the heart took a couple tries to get right, but after that I could whip them up really fast.

I also put a new pattern up for sale this month! The pattern is for my Blizzard Cowl, and if you decide to try it out you’ll get to try out doing cables together with stranded colour work. The outcome looks much more complicated than it is to make, so I encourage you to give it a try. You can find the pattern on my Ravelry store!

Printable Valentine's Day Cards: http://www.poststitchbox.com/blogs/news/18721791-valentines-day-cards-for-knitters

Crochet Heart Pattern: http://www.crochetleaf.com/basic-crochet-heart.html

Blizzard Cowl: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/blizzard-cowl

Learning to Crochet

My grandma taught me to knit when I was just a kid, but when I picked it up again in high school I didn’t adventure very far right away. I learned how to knit a simple scarf by one of my high school teachers, just row after row of knitting, and I didn’t think I had the skills for anything beyond that. I think I knit four scarves before I even learned how to purl, but once I started knitting things from patterns I realized I hadn’t given myself enough credit and I probably could have started knitting more complex things a lot sooner.

I’ve been wanting to learn how to crochet for a while now, so I decided that instead of spending a ton of time doing the basic stitches over and over again I would jump right into doing a pattern. Of course I needed to watch plenty of instructional videos, as well as get help from my friends on Instagram, but finding my way around my very first crochet pattern was easy enough and I ended up with a set of three nesting baskets that I’m pretty proud of.

I crocheted the baskets using homemade fabric yarn, which I wrote a blog post about a couple months ago. I found the tutorial for making the yarn and the pattern for the nesting baskets on the same blog, Petals to Picots, by Kara. The links to her blog and the specific tutorials will be listed at the bottom of this post. I found the pattern pretty clear, considering it was the first thing I’ve ever made with crochet. One step at the beginning of the pattern confused me, which was starting a circle of stitches, but that was just due to my lack of crochet skills. As soon as I figured that step out the rest of the project came together very smoothly.

I’ve been using my nesting baskets to hold gift wrapping supplies for the time being, but you could also use them to hold wrapped candies, knitting supplies, or have them sitting by the door to hold your keys and wallet. What was the first thing you ever crocheted? Did you jump right in to a pattern or did you perfect your skills first?

Making Fabric into Yarn: http://www.petalstopicots.com/2012/03/green-crocheting-making-fabric-into-yarn/

Fabric Nesting Baskets Pattern: http://www.petalstopicots.com/2012/03/green-crocheting-fabric-nesting-baskets-pattern/