I Don't Like To Crochet.

Wilma, a couple of weeks ago at knit group, was showing off her lovely, cotton, crocheted kerchief.    The pattern, on line, is the knitted Zuzu's  Petals, but one of the staff at the Alberta  LYS where Wilma was shopping while visiting her daughter, had converted the pattern to crochet.  Kindly, Wilma shared the pattern with me.

Wilma crochets often.  She enjoys it and is very good at it.  Me?  I can crochet. In fact I learned to crochet long before learning to knit.  But I don't like it much.  And I don't do it often.   When you add my dislike for the art and the infrequency with which I do it to the fact that the pattern was written by a fibre artist, not a pattern writer, I struggled.

I texted Wilma with my issues.  She remembered struggling with the pattern herself while out west.  And another friend who had received a copy had also talked to Wilma about not 'getting it.'  Wilma suggested I bring yarn and hook to knit group last week and we could work on it together.  And that is what I did.

It was just a matter of pattern intrepretation.  The pattern writer had an (to me at least) uncommon way of expressing instructions.  Once I understood the difference between what she said and what I thought she was saying, I was underway.

But I'd have to say I didn't enjoy it.  I had forgotten how much heavier crochet is than knitting  And how much more yarn it takes.  Most importantly for me though, is that I cannot crochet unless I am looking at my work.  I cannot look up at the TV or talk to a friend.  Takes the fun out of handiwork for me.  But I persevered and finished the kerchief.  That is, finished minus the  last few rows of instructions.  I was tired of it.  Instead of the few rows of lacey edging called for in the pattern,  I did one row and called it done!  Enough!

The yarn has been in my stash for years.  More than ten years I know.  And I don't remember anything about it - gauge, manufacturer, fibre content.  All I remember is that a friend had made a gorgeous shawl with the yarn and when she mentioned that she had two skeins left over I bought them from her.

The advantage of the kerchief style is that there is far less bulk at the back neck than offered by a cowl. 

 

The disadvantage of the kerchief style is that there is far less bulk at the back neck than offered by a cowl.  Bulk that might keep winter winds at bay.

 However for style and indoor wear, less bulk works.  Nonetheless, I won't be crocheting another one soon.