My stitching life began in first grade. Literally. For some reason our first grade teacher, Mrs. Betty Kerns taught all of us first graders to knit. I love to knit, but haven't picked up knitting needles in over thirty years. I keep meaning to take a refresher course and take it up again, but I have too many counted cross stitch patterns to make first.
I learned to embroider when I was nine years old. My maternal grandmother, Mae Ammerman taught me how. I loved to embroider. Especially with variegated threads!
My next foray into the needle arts was needlepoint. I enjoyed needle point throughout my teens and early twenties. This was accompanied by a brief obsession with latch hook (I have a box of latch hook projects I made and I can't bring myself to throw them out, but I really don't want to keep them. Any suggestions?)
Then I discovered counted cross stitch. I don't even remember how I came upon this craft. I was hooked. I've been cross stitching every since (except for the ten year break I took to raise my kids from 1990-2000).
I have also dabbled in quilting. I like to quilt, but since I use the hand piece, hand quilt method it's starting to be difficult. Because I have old eyes and old hands.
The one needle art that has eluded me is crochet. My grandmas (both of them) crocheted and tried to teach me how multiple times. My problem is that I stitch too tightly. No matter what, I could not relax the tension of my stitches. So I gave up.
Since I can't crochet, my mission in life is to rescue as many crochet doilies as is humanly possible at Goodwill, garage sales, estate sales and antique shops. I also pin crocheted items on Pinterest. A lot.
While I wish I could crochet, and I do occasionally think about giving it a try again, I can't get past the dozens of cross stitch patterns I need to stitch first. So, here are some photos of what I would crochet if I could crochet.
Those are some very vibrant crocheted pieces! I am hopeless at knitting unless someone needs an enormously long scarf, never tried crochet, dabbled in latch hook once, and have turned out quite a few cross stitch pieces in my time. I'd say list those latch hook items as a bulk lot on Ebay, you never know who might be looking for just that type of thing.
ReplyDeleteI loved this post Vicki. I tried knitting once. I did not do well.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pieces. I crochet and would be very happy sitting with you and trying to help you learn to crochet loosely.
ReplyDeleteI'm behind on commenting, so first -- hooray for going to see your grandson soon! great pic in the last post! OK. Now why do you tempt me with all those wonderful crochet pictures? I want to try crochet too. lol! Your crafting sounds sort of like me, learning various things at various times. It's fun to be multicraftual!
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