In the beginning....

I learned to crochet when I was 11 years old. My grandma Marie helped me make the world's ugliest purse out of cream colored acrylic yarn. It was pretty much a big square with all kinds of mistakes in it. I got bored with it pretty quickly.

About 7 or 8 years later, I decided to pick up a hook again. I made a 4'x6' afghan for my Grandma Pat. While decidedly better than the purse, it still is far from being a masterpiece. I worked as a telemarketer for a while (you can put up your crucifix and garlic, I'm not doing that anymore) and while we were waiting for our headsets to beep in our ears, indicating that someone had picked up the phone and progressed from, "Hello?" to "If anybody is on the #!#%#@% line, you had $#!$ better talk now or I'm going to !#%!^@^! hang up!!!!", there wasn't a lot to do. So, I crocheted. Then, once again, I got busy being young and stupid, and didn't touch a hook for years.

Now, I'm a full time stay at home mom of 4. I crochet primarily for stress relief these days, and lately I've been a very prolific crocheter! It's one of those "You don't have to be crazy to do this job, but it helps!" things. I plan to post some pictures of finished projects soon. I'm just lazy about putting the pictures online. I've made 3 seraphina shawls (and am on my 4th), 4 of my funky monkey skinny scarves, 1 adult version of the pumamouse sleuthing shawl, and about 4 kids' versions of it, a poncho for the daughter of a friend of mine, and about 6 or 7 dishcloths. I also have a delicate web wrap in the works. It's made of cream colored silk chenille that produces shudders of delight in all who touch it. I've got a scarf in the making of this funky thick/thin rayon chunky yarn, and I've already made a wrap out of it for my sister Rebekah. I also made a baby blanket for my cousin Amanda. Yeesh! I've made more than I thought I did. All this has taken place in just the past few months.

Speaking of prolific crocheting, I think I've injured myself. I never thought of crochet as a sport, but I definitely have a sports-type injury! My wrist hurts when I crochet and it hurts all the way up my arm. I think I'd better take a break for a day or two.