Crossing over to the Hook Side Vol 1

I've finally done it. I have started and completed an entire crochet project and mentally, it simply wasn't easy. For stitchers who gravitate to knitting first and get comfortable, picking up crochet can at first be on a to-do list that eventually becomes an ever vague and mounting hill  and then a mountain to traverse.

One weapon but Teacher,
It's a dragon not a dragonfly!
Our very bodies seem to rebel, informing us quite primly that holding one implement and trying to create is not what it is used to and it would prefer if you would kindly put down the hook and pick back up the needles.

Visually every stitch can look like a brain-teaser and what may be simple to an absolute stitching novice, can look doubly as foreign as those trying to put aside the familiar vocabulary of knitting and jump head and hook first into crochet.

I fought it, I cursed it... heck to make myself feel better I even ridiculed it. When somewhere burning in my soul I felt inadequate... How could I not when all the bi-stitch-tual pattern makers continued to audaciously list a crochet hook of all things as a necessary implement.

From lovely edgings to the provisional cast on it taunted me. A dragon that didn't stick to its lair long enough to be forgotten. In fact it burned my villages down time and time again as my pattern leaflets continued to display patterns for crocheted pieces between my knitting treasures and the sheer beauty of them haunted me.

There was no reprieve anywhere, from WIP and FO from my stitching sisters of the hook variety to the crocheting tab above the knitting one of the Ravelry pattern search function. It rankled like a devil on my shoulder, laughing at my ineptitude.

Finally! I had had enough... and truly I had forgotten my knitting project bag at work and was in need of distraction. So I borrowed a hook from my best friend, stole a ball of TLC white she had that I have been eyeing for week and I started.


Yes, of course it is a cowl.
I almost gave in when my foundation chain for my project got twisted but  held out. Like a brave warrior armed only with determination and one less weapon that I was used too, I plodded on. Finally I defeated the dragon! Hushed the devil and it was a triumphant moment. I cheered, I danced and I grinned, filled with the knowledge that I - sadodosah had finally put that to rest.


Or so I thought...


After all all I did was single and double crochet. What madness is this that I see in my Encyclopaedia of Stitchery ( I will review this soon). Yet another battle field loomed before me and I cowered - I swayed with the exhaustion of the previous fight and I longed for the familiar needles, the simplicity of my knit stitch and I was about to cave in.
Ergh! What?! Uh oh!

Did I?

Well that's another story...

Comments

  1. I crocheted first, then knitted ... I love them both, but crochet is harder on my hands for some reason. There are a lot of really neat crochet stitches ... and baby blankets are really fast with a crochet hook!

    Nice cowl :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Beth! Crochet is hurting my hands more, but that too is another story.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Like Beth, I crocheted long before picking up sticks, but I had your problem in reverse; I couldn't make my hands understand the process of knitting. Only after someone mentioned that Continental style knitting did I find the transition easier. That would be my advice to you actually; try following crochet pattern instructions for the opposite hand; it might help?

    Either way, enjoy this new hobby!

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