To kind of catch everyone up on the rest of my story,this past  January I started taking a crochet/knitting class. (No I don’t knit, yet, anyway!) What a wonderful group of ladies that get together at the local community college and work on learning new stitches, patterns, learning how to design, among finding a common thread, if you will, of enjoyment. When I went into this class, I had no idea what to really expect or what would happen. I have gained so much knowledge and confidence in the ability that God has given me, that I fall more in love with crocheting everyday. I am taking the summer off from class, but I truly can not wait to start again in September. Not that I want time to get away too quickly, mind you. It is funny, now that I have been a group setting with other crocheters, I find my projects that used to take months, only take a few weeks at the most. 🙂 I am the youngest in the class, and I am reminded of that often by them. LOL I think they all like the fact that there is hope that textile art will not die out. I believe that crochet really is like a catalyst in conversation when in public. I have been the DRs office and had people not only watch whatever project I was on, but ask questions on how to, and tell me about how their Grandma used to do that. To those who know me, I am not an outgoing, never-met-a-stranger kinda person, so I love it when conversations spark because of a “simple” thing like crocheting.

I must admit that books are an other passion of mine. {So what if I have collected over 600 cookbooks!} 😉 I have been adding crochet books  to my bookshelves lately. My personal favorite right now is Donna Kooler’s Encyclopedia of Crochet Stitches. Talk about sparking ideas!! What are some of your favorite and most helpful crochet resources???? ?Just leave a comment.

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Keep crafting until next time! Jama

How does one start down the road from hobby to passion of life? Well, with me it all began with a Christmas gift from my Grandma. I was about 10 or 11 and when I opened those three aluminum sticks, made for crochet. Of course I had NO clue how to use them. There were obstacles that stood in my way.. 1) being so young I did not have the patience, 2) after asking around in my family there was no one who could/would show me how. Being home-schooled, I had been taught from an early age if I found something that interested me, to study up on  it. Hey, Benjamin Franklin was a home-schooled genius! So lead me to the craft books from the 1970’s, that my parents had acquired from the discard pile at the local library. I would try to read about it, but they all were written for this right handed world. So off on my journey, I continued to make chains, pull them out, get frustrated, put it all away for 6 months, repeat. After about 3 years of this pattern of just trying to figure how to crochet and my mother’s saying : I’m not sure that is right! I finally got it. Then my mother says “Thank you Jesus” when I showed her  how my once uneven squares turned into more equally spaced stitches.  So that is the beginning of my creativity learning. More to come from this story, pictures, and updates on my designs and projects. Until then, Happy crafting!!