Crocheted gifts can be nice, when given to the right person, but what happens when they aren’t appreciated? Some crocheters spend hours, days, or even months to finish a project and on top of that spend who knows how much money on the yarn. Not everyone understands the hard work, effort, and labor, us crocheters put into our work! Personally, this is why I rarely give crocheted gifts. I’m so afraid that my preciously crocheted hat, scarf, shawl or what not, will end up in a dusty closet never to worn by the person I gave it to. Perhaps it’s all about finding the right person who will appreciate it.

Do you give crocheted gifts?

You may have seen this awesome rug, since it was made about a year ago, but I just came across it today and had to share! This lady (not sure what her name is) hand crocheted (no hook, just hands) the giant doily rug with what looks like rope.

Who ever said that doilies had to be cute little dainty things for dinning room tables. Now I dare someone to take a doily pattern and make a giant rug with it! Find more about the designer here, (thanks Erin Lea for the link).

Is public crochet decorations the new fad? I keep reading more and more about people crocheting objects to hang around the city. Remember the video I posted about decorating the city with crochet? Well, this time it’s in Cleveland, Ohio and volunteers are making covers to put around the poles of parking meters.

The reasoning behind it is that it’s pretty and cheers people up when they have to feed the dreaded meter. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to decorate, but in my opinion, there are much better things to do with your crochet talents then decorate parking meters. Come on, find a nice crochet charity and make a blanket or a toy for a baby who needs it. Or use the man who hangs crocheted hats as an inspiration. I’m just saying that the parking meter isn’t going to die if it gets cold, but a human might. Plus, do you really need to decorate a parking meter? Is there anyone suffering from ugly-parking-meter-syndrome? If so, that would be a different story.

If you haven’t heard, I recently had my first day of jury duty! It wasn’t dreadful as many like to describe. In my opinion it was pretty fun. All I really did was crochet. I was making a baby cocoon, and the lady that sat close to me must have forgot to bring a book to read, so she watched me crochet as if I was a TV show. I thought it was a little weird having an audience. The biggest audience I’ve ever had consist of my cat. I would have taught her to crochet if I wasn’t using boucle yarn (you know that stuff is a nightmare for beginners to learn with).

On the jury duty side of things, I didn’t get picked. Believe it or not, I was disappointed because I wanted to see what it would be like to be on a jury. Well, there’s always next time!

I read somewhere on the web that 12 artist will be selected to make art work for the 2012 Olympics in London. One of the top artist that is being considered proposed to make three 30 feet tall crocheted lions that will be posed into athletic positions. 30 feet tall lions, that’s a lot of yarn!!!

I wonder how long it would take to make a lion that big, but at least the artist has until 2012 if selected. I can’t imagine crocheting anything that huge. I do hope that this artist is selected so that I can see giant crocheted lions. It would be awesome and great publicity for the art of crochet.

What do you think?

Inspiration can come from anywhere! Where does yours come from? Maybe through charity work or just out of thin air?

When I was in middle school, I saw one of my closest friends crocheting and I thought it was so amazing! The way a ball of yarn was being turned into a piece of cloth was definitely stare worthy. I ended up going home to ask my mom how to crochet and if I remember correctly she taught me how with a chopstick. Yea, we didn’t have a crochet hook and I really wanted to learn how.

I learned the basic foundation chain, single crochet and double crochet. At the time technique and making things look perfect wasn’t a priority so I learned those skill as I went along. I was just so excited about all the things that I wanted to make!

Today I’m pretty sure that I know more about crocheting than my mom who taught me, since I’m always learning something new from people, books and crochet tutorials online. So if you’re just learning to crochet, here are some basics to start with:

How to Hold a Crochet Hook
How to Hold Yarn in Crochet
How to Crochet: Slip Knot
How to Crochet: Chain (ch)
How to Crochet: Single Crochet Stitches (sc)
How to Crochet: Double Crochet Stitches (dc)

Don’t worry too much about perfection, it’ll come with experience. But here are “7 Tips to Establish Consistency in Crochet” if you feel you need them. Also, feel free to dig into the Crochet Tutorials Archives for more How-To’s!

Do you have a crochet learning experience to share?

These days, who doesn’t multitask? When I crochet I end up listening to music at the same time or watching a TV show. Actually I listen to the TV show. I’m not brave enough to crochet without looking. I’m afraid if I turn away, and then look back down, it’ll look like I crocheted with my feet.

But if I’m in deep concentration with a pattern that needs a tone of stitch counting I would crochet in complete silence. There’s something about crocheting that is so soothing that just doing crochet and nothing else is still satisfying.

Funny thing I can’t do while crocheting is talk, unless it is rows and rows of double crochet. I think it’s because I’m secretly talking to myself about what to do next in the pattern.

What about you? What do you do while you crochet?

I got my first summon for jury duty! How exciting!!! Alright maybe it’s not that exciting, but at least now I can join the club of people that got one, plus I get a lot of down time to do you know what…crochet! Everyone that I’ve talked to says it’s just so boring. But I’m still excited because I’ve never done it before. Plus I have a thing for crime shows and it might be cool to sit in a court room and listen to an interesting case.

Let me know what it’s like if you’ve had your turn at jury duty!

Does it matter if it’s winter or summer? To me I crochet whenever I want, no matter what the season or weather may be. The other day I was at the craft store buying some yarn and the lady at the cash register looked at me like I was crazy, asking me what I was doing with all that yarn in the middle of the summer. Don’t people crochet and knit in the summer too? Or maybe because the weather is nice and no one wants to sit around crocheting when they can be outside swimming in a pool. But if you’re a real hardcore crocheter you’d be the one who crochets on the beach! I mean you can crochet and enjoy the weather at the same time.

Plus, if you’re like me and get cold very easily, all that air conditioning blowing in the summer just says, “Rachel! Rachel!! Go get some yarn to keep you warm.”

So what about you? Do you crochet less in the summer or are you one of those hardcore crocheters?