I remember when I was 6 years old, visiting my grandmother in Denmark. Sitting on her couch, she was teaching me the art of knitting. She made beautiful sweaters without patterns! She would sit and knit (not even looking at the work) and make these lovely sweaters from her head. Well, I wanted to do that. I couldn't imagine making these nice things from balls of yarn.
So, from the age of 6, I was knitting. But, being a little kid, I had other things I wanted to be doing like going outside and playing. I would see my mother knitting while watching t.v., making blankets, and I wanted to do that too. So, when I was 15, I asked my mother to teach me to make an afghan. I made my very first afghan then for my bed, in my purple room. Purple was my favorite color at the time, and I made my afghan purple and white. I have that afghan to this day......32 years later, and will never part with it!
But somewhere during that time, I also decided I wanted to learn crocheting. I made scarves, and blankets......but they were with the simple basic stitches. I would see these beautiful afghans and sweaters and other things that could be made with other stitches that I didn't know how to do. Well, after years of seeing these beautiful things, and still crocheting the same ol' thing, I decided I'd have to learn how to read patterns and how to make the difficult and "special" stitches. I had to stop being intimidated by the patterns. So, I picked up a more difficult pattern and slowly learned more difficult stitches. I had done this before, but always gave up when I couldn't figure out how to do the stitches after trying time after time. Frustration got the best of me. But when I was bored with doing the same things all the time, I figured I'd have to have patience and keep trying, no matter how many times I'd have to tear something apart, or how many times I'd have to try a stitch til I got it right.
It's so hard to understand how to do something with a picture...and that's why I made my "Learn to crochet" video. It's located at
www.learn-crochet-now.com It shows first hand, how to hold the hook, how to make the stitches and where to place the stitches. It's something I wish I had when I was first learning to crochet...and I wanted to make it easier for other beginner crocheters.
I look back and don't know why I found it so hard because now, it's the easiest thing for me. I don't have problems reading and following the patterns. And I can make beautiful things.
Now I'm always making things for my family for holidays, birthdays and whatever other reasons I can come up with to make something. I'm so happy now that my nieces are old enough to be having babies. I've made baby blankets, clothes, stuffed toys.
There are soooo many patterns out there, I just want to make every single one of them. I actually seriously thought about making every afghan I see just to make it. What I would do with it, I didn't know. Then someone mentioned to me, "why don't you sell your stuff"? That's when Afghans -n- More was born. You can see some of the stuff I've made at
www.afghansnmore.com So, whenever I make something, I just put it on my site. If someone buys one, fine, if not....I have alot of great stuff that I can be proud of.
Right now, I'm trying my hand at my own creation. It's a rose/hexagon afghan. It's a rose on a hexagon. I was trying to make it on a square, but it came out a hexagon instead and thought that would look pretty good. It's a beautiful peach color with white. I'm very anxious to see how it comes out.
I also started knitting a "cabled" afghan to use up some of my scrap yarn. I sure have enough of it... :) Hopefully tomorrow I will figure out how to get pictures up and get a picture of the rose/hexagon, and a strip of the cabled afghan. Now when I get bored with the roses, I switch to the knitted afghan.
So many things to make, so little time!!!
