Just DON'T call me a hooker.....!

As part of my renewed interest in crochet the little amigurumi are calling me. Only one slight impediment to making these little items in the round is the fact I am completely unable to follow or even understand a crochet pattern. So, I did what any self respecting person would....I called a friend! 

Hazel is seriously crochet talented but hilariously unable to go off-piste when crocheting whereas I can craft simple things by looking at them and guessing but have absolutely no pattern literacy. What a pair(!) but very lucky as our skills and talents complement each other. So she came over, with her 'Lady Almoner's' posh wicker crafting basket and, after dinner, we set to work.

It was fab doing some follow-along to get back into the swing of things and to apply what we were doing to the patterning terms. I am very much a visual learner and this was ideal. Youtube is great and I've learned so much from teach-a-longs but somehow the whole pattern thing just wasn't working for me. I've managed to pick up how to do Tunisian crochet but the discipline of patterning was refusing to stick.

 Not bad, but getting there...at least round and square are recognisable now...! 

 

We made a granny square, a circle and a ball that actually was round and she lent me some fabulous crochet books with patterns and instructions. In return I was able to teach her some Tunisian crochet I'd picked up and how to knit up the frilly and pompom scarf yarn I seem to be obsessed with.

It was a lovely evening spent catching up, learning new skills to add to our memory banks. Two things, however, struck us..... 1. despite loving one of the books she brought I cant  ever see myself ever being referred to as a 'Happy Hooker'! and 2. on the way out of the door Hazel realised with horror she had just inadvertently been to a Knit and Natter night which made her feel ancient!

I was so chuffed with the little ball that I pinched some wadding from the materials I'd bought to reupholster a piano stool just so that I could complete it. I then 'gifted' it to Magic for her to play with. Sadly, I'd failed to reckon with a sincerely relaxed cat who looked at the ball, then up at me and then cocked her head at the ball while maintaining eye contact as if to say "that thing's over there if you are looking for it...". Nothing quite like a cat to puncture your pride.