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An Education

Making three different throws from thrifted yarn taught me a lot this year. While I followed a free pattern for this Ocean Tranquility throw, I used my own color scheme. so that it resembles the beach and the edge of the ocean. That was fun and gave me confidence to try more/different palettes. I'd like to make another, this time in rows of garden and sky colors.

Learning new stitches has also been fun. This shell stitch variation pattern, also known as drunken granny stitch, helped me expand the range of the one-row stitch patterns I know. I'll definitely be using it again for another crochet throw project.

Revisiting my crochet past has also been good for me. It was a little difficult and time-consuming, sewing together all these squares (I much prefer row patterns for this reason) and I made some mistakes with the finishing that I had to correct. Yet this brought back some good memories, too. I might make a rectangular gigantic granny square out of scrap yarn some time in the future.

When I first got back into crochet I was a bit worried that I'd forgotten all that I had learned when I was young. Turns out it really is like riding a bike -- once you learn the basics, and how to read a pattern, you'll have the skills for life.

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