I’ve been knitting for over 20 years, and I’ve learned to latch hook, embroider, sew, do needlepoint, and a lot more. But I was undeniably terrible at crochet. Really, really bad. I would love to show evidence of some of my epically failed attempts, but I threw them in the trash years ago. The trash never forgave me.

When we started getting more crochet books, and several of my coworkers mentioned an interest in learning to crochet, I thought, hey, why not? It’s been years now, maybe my old crochet hooks have forgotten what I’d subjected them to. I decided that this time, I am actually going to learn to crochet, and remember it. We were all talking about goals with our crochet – everyone else is going to make things. My goal is just to crochet something that is not utterly horrible. Like, it looks like I meant to do that.

So, Nina and I signed up for a learn to crochet class! I could chain when I got there, but that was it. I then learned how to single and double crochet, and then it clicked – I was terrible at crochet because I did it completely wrong. So, with my newfound confidence, I kept going with my little swatch. In the class, the instructor suggested we make a little bag out of it, so I began to crochet in the round (correctly! …mostly). I realized that it was going to be a very ugly bag. Very, very ugly. So… In my typical fashion, I completely ignored what I was supposed to be doing.And the results…

Meet Carl!

Carl is a Nudibranch. He lives in tidepools. Well, he’s supposed to, but he got lost and now lives in my office. He tried to meet some of the other office folk…

But was met with some odd stares.

Poor Carl. He’s still my friend. I hopes he can find other friends too…

But, does he count as reaching my goal? He is the first thing I’ve successfully (and I’m using that term loosely) crocheted, but is he actually something I could call decent work? What are your thoughts?

Up next – feel sorry for my scrap bin, because I’m gonna get all Granny on it! heh heh heh….