I can crochet!

Well, sort of!  I went to a crochet class with my mum on Sunday at Yarn which is a fab little wool shop in Beeston, Nottingham.  Neither of us had ever crocheted before, only a couple of the other 8 ladies there had, so it was a real beginners class.  We started with a chain, then moved on to double crochet.  I really struggled with that and need to practice.  Then on to trebles, I like them!  Here's my practice "square":

Rubbish, eh?  It's all wonky and wobbly!  We then moved onto making Afghan squares or Granny squares.  This worked out a lot better:

Much better!  I was quite pleased with this and it only took me about 3 hours!!  We've signed up for the next course they run - improvers, so I have to get my double crochet stitch up to speed and practice my trebles a bit more.  I was so enthusiastic about it when I got home, I made a full Granny square towards the blanket I'm going to make:

It only took me 3 hours, so a big improvement!  I just have to make sure I don't get hooked on making these and neglect practicing double crochet.

Apart from our materials, the teaching, a fantastic lunch, hundreds of mugs of coffee, biscuits and cake, we were also given a 10% discount on yarn on the day.  I managed to buy a bag full.  I bought 8 balls of different shades of blue for the blanket I indend to knit using squares, each a different pattern.  The shop also stocks some gorgeous Amy Butler fabric and I just had to treat myself!  The shop owner had made up some knitting bags, one small, one large, from the fabric and you got the pattern free if you bought the material.  Well how could I resist... I have to make one for mum and one for me.  Here's the material, watch this space for the bags!:

I also managed to find time to knit a few more hats for the Big Knit.  Arghh, closing date 15th October, running out of time...  I had some lovely chenille yarn that I'd bought on sale, I decided to make a hat out of it.  It didn't quite work out - see how big it is compared to the others!

Oh dear.  I'm hoping I can felt it in the washing machine to make it the right size, but the yarn didn't have a label (hence it being on sale) and so I don't know if it's Superwash.  Fingers crossed.

I finally got down to some of my crewel embroidery in time to post for the 2010 Stitch Along (not that I have posted yet as I can't figure out how!!).  I didn't get much done as it's so hard!  I end up unpicking most rows and starting again.  Not looking very neat:

So, a lot to do this week.  I want to make some more hats, practice my double crochet, make another Granny square or two, I also need to whip up some Christmas presents for Cathy's Christmas Countdown which I have to post about on Friday, arghh!  Why can't I get my arse into gear??  It means that I will be starting on my Craft Book Challenge tonight - I'll post pictures of the books I chose tomorrow and hopefully get started.  I do want to make a couple of hanging scented hearts for some people, so that might be a way to get me started.  There's also the cushion I'm making that needs turning into a cushion, not sure if I've got the confidence to try that one yet.