I’ve had a crush on crochet for a long time. I feel like I’ve been giving a lot of attention to Knitting lately -which I also love- and I really wanted to wax poetic about crochet. I love the way that I can improvise and work organically. You can connect it to just about anything that has holes in it. It’s thick and warm and textured.

Crochet is also one of the only garment construction methods that can’t be reproduced by machine. Even to this day, anything that’s crocheted is 100% handmade.

Oh and did I mention it’s fast? Many crochet projects can be finished in just one or two evenings.
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It really made me happy all the nice comment you gave me on the Cable Cast On How To, so I decided to follow up a little ahead of schedule with why it’s so great to use, especially when just learning. Like I said, the cable cast on is such a similar motion to working a knit stitch that it’s a snap to do once you get casted on. When learning a new skill, the less you have to try to wrap your head around the better in my book. Check it out:
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I use this cast on all the time. It’s my default, if it’s not specified in the pattern cast on to use. It’s also the best cast on to show in training knitters. The thing is, the cast on method is pretty much the same as knitting a knit stitch. So once you get a beginner casting on, they are good to go on their first garter stitch scarf.
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I was so happy to get a How To request over on my FaceBook wall from an old classmate of mine:
“Hey kristin, I LEARNED HOW TO KNIT ! AND HOW TO PURL! AND HOW TO DO CABLES! all from youtube! I’m so excited because now i can make really pretty scarves and no longer feel completely inept at knitting. Except I have no idea how to count rows. MAKE A CRAFT LEFTOVER BLOG ON HOW TO COUNT ROWS! DO IT!”

I love requests like that! What a great idea for a how to post. I think I will! So here we go!

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There will always be bizarre units of measurement like the foot (US) in common use. I can only guess that when people were measuring the trees they had just felled, walking the length of the tree and saying “Hey, this is 10 foot lengths long” made a whole lot of sense. But now, to look at a 2 x 4 and to say “I need an 8 foot length” is kind of strange. Like who’s foot are they going by? Mine, well, I would need about 12 feet then because my feet are certainly Read more →