yay for crochet!

So some of you may remember when, a few years ago in college, I started to crochet. I made a blanket or two and then dropped it. My fingers were sore, it just wasn't fun, and I was bored with blankets. And so it stayed until three weeks ago when my friend Katherine showed up to our Dickens' fair carpool with a crochet hook and some cotton yarn. Teaching herself from a book, she was making a potholder. No offense to Katherine, but it didn't exactly make me wanna jump up and shout, but......it did seem to be a pretty good answer to the question "What do you do in a car for six hours if you're not driving?" AND I could make a homemade gift or two for Christmas.

The more I thought about it, the better it started to sound. And then fate struck. Jeremy had to go to the Last Grenadier for a drow minature and what store happens to be right next door? That gorgeous yarn boutique Unwind, that I'd been curious about since we moved here last year. So I browsed, and I touched and I caressed....finally deciding on a gray alpaca yarn that was so soft, I swear it feels like angora is mixed in. This would be a perfect scarf for ***************** [censored until after Christmas], and it would be easy to ship to *********. Perfect!

Not twenty minutes into it and I realized what I disliked about crochet and why I had stopped. It was the acrylic yarn that I had bought at the craft store all those years ago (well, two years at least) That yarn dried my fingers out, felt plastic-y when I worked with it (the finished product felt much better but still) and just wasn't enjoyable. Not so with this stuff. Its so nice and warm and soft, and within a day I had the makings of a very nice scarf that I almost want to keep myself.

Still, you might say, what's crochet good for except blankets and scarfs and stuff? I was fairly amazed to discover on the internet, patterns to crochet just about anything you would like from bags to teddy bears, and this weekend, I even saw someone wearing a miniature crocheted top hat at Dickens' (of which I am very envious). I've also learned about felting, which is a way to take your crocheted something or other and make it really cool and soft so it doesn't even look crocheted, but certainly looks chic.

To my gaming friends, have no fear. I've decided, at least for the present, that crochet takes too much attention to be enjoyable while gaming...it would take me out of the action. But, movie watching works great, and of course, sitting at home waiting for students to show up is a great time to crochet. And in January, Katherine and I are attending a yarn tasting at Unwind. Can't wait to see how that goes. :)