Crochet and IDP

One of my favorite things I’ve learned this year is how to crochet!  I’ve always been surrounded by women (and men!) who crochet more than knit, but for some reason I couldn’t pick it up – I had some sort of mental block.  That ended back in May when my mom & I took a rainy holiday on the Oregon Coast – finally for like 20th she tried so show me, something in my brain clicked and I’ve been crocheting up a storm since then!  And since the IDP Crochet pattern selection has grown so much, I’ve been in heaven.

My first big crochet project was the Adva Scarf by Lauren Osbonre.  This is her version:

This was a great first crochet project – I had fun picking out the Swish yarns from my stash.

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I have honestly worn this nearly everyday since it started getting cold – it’s very long and wide so it’s perfect to wrap around my neck.  I absolutely love it.

One of my favorite crochet designer is Linda Permann – I’ve made her lovely IDP pattern Garden Hat and I also have her book Crochet Adorned, which really I find so helpful!  I’ve used the crochet stitch patterns that are included to create a neckwarmer as well as a wrap in Capra that I whipped up in less than 48 hours for a wedding I was attending!  I don’t have a great picture of it, but here’s a shot someone took of me wearing it.

crochet shawl

I used the Floret Stitch and I think it turned out pretty nice. It worked well for the sunny but slightly chilly weather that day.  Plus I got to amaze my friends that I finished it so quickly!

More recently, when we received the pattern for Kat Siddle’s Inuvik Mittens, I knew I had to make them! (yeah, doesn’t my job sound terrible?  I get to see all these wonderful patterns before anyone!)

How beautiful are they?

This one was a bit of a challenge for me, since I’ve pretty much only done scarves, hats or toys and mittens need to actually fit properly!  But after a few false starts, I managed to finish my own pair and got the lovely & talented Sarah to take the photo.(I used Capra in Hunter, Cream & Black)

Mittens

It honestly doesn’t really get cold enough here to wear mittens that often but I like them – and I’m sure I’ll be happy to have them if I need them!

Are you a hooker?  What have you crocheted lately?

ETA 11/11 Sadly, due to the amount of spam this post is getting, I’m turning off the comments.  You can reach me on twitter @kp_stacey or see more of my projects on Ravelry.  Hopefully we’ll be able to get rid of the spammers that are hitting our blog pretty heaviliy the past couple of days.