Crocheting my way out of boredom

I am now officially on maternity leave. Though to be honest, I stopped going into the office from mid January. I am also officially bored and fed-up. Sitting at home alone all day, day after day is quite mind numbing. I really would not have minded all this free time if I could go out and about and do stuff, but I am almost house bound, and trust me, that SUCKS!!!

Right, now that my little rant is off my chest, I can carry on with what has been making stuff bearable round these parts. I decided to start making things for the baby. I have given up on making anything for myself because

2nd Crochet hat and Jewellry

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday so far.

My 1 week holiday has been a success for a number of reasons, chiefly because

1. I got to wake up each day after 10am ( yeah I'm that lazy)
2. I did not feel guilty drinking more than two glasses of wine everyday ( Wine aids digestion you know)
3. I learned how to crochet ( well I think I have)
4. I made some jewelry ( well sort of)

A few days ago I wrote a post about my first foray into crocheting, which resulted in a rather dubious looking hat. Well I'm glad to say I gave it another try, and ended up with this

I think its supposed to be a chunky beanie hat!

Back view

Don't know what dance I was doing, but I can ASSURE you all, I was quite sober

well maybe just.

So, I think I can consider this second attempt a success. Its been really hot today, but I wore my hat all day when I went to town to do some last minute shopping. I've decided to wear whatever I make this year. Nice or not. The nice ones will make me feel good about myself, the not so good once will make me work harder, and be more patient when sewing the next project.

JEWELRY

I also thought I should try my hand at jewelry making. Why? because I think we are good at many more things than we think we are. So I am going to keep trying everything crafty, to find out what I enjoy, and what I don't. So far, I've established that 

1. I adore sewing
2. I'm not crazy about knitting
3. I like crocheting, even though I am not good at it yet. 
4. I will like to try painting, jewelry making, millinery, perfume making, soap making, candle making, sculpture, and everything else under the sun that involves using the creative part of my brain....did I mention i'm not mad about knitting?

That said, when I went into town today, I bought some pendants, and some string. I wanted to make simple necklaces. These are probably the easiest things to do when it comes to jewelry making, because all I did was tie the string round the pendants, and I was done. A total of 30 seconds. Or less I should imagine. So, the more experienced jewelry makers will probably not classify this as jewelry making, but in my little book, I say it is. lol.

Ladies and gents (?), I present ( drum rolling), Dib's masterpieces

Raw materials

So all in all, a very productive day for. 

Have a wonderful easter everyone.

xoxo

Dibs

1st attempt at Crocheting a hat

Please don't laugh at this ( lol). My family have been laughing at me all morning, and there's just so much anyone can take.

Yesterday I took it upon myself to learn how to crochet. I've been seeing a lot of knitting and crocheting going on in awesome blogs, and feeling soooooooo jealous that I could only create with the help of a machine, and not with my bare hands. To make matters worse, I saw Donna's blanket  and Kestrel's stripped socks, and I just knew I had to do something about  it.

So armed with four hooks I bought after church in the church fund raising table for the grand sum of 50p each, I harassed my mother-in-law for some yarn. She gave me what she had left at home, and I went on youtube, to see if I could learn from any videos. Now there are loads of helpful people out there, willing to help people like me, who have no idea on what to do with a hook, but sometimes, the willingness to help gets lost in translation, and the videos are anything but helpful. Anyways I managed to piece two and two together by looking at many videos, and started my crocheting journey. 2 hours later , my mother-in-law and I went shopping, so I was able to buy more yarn from hobbycraft, which was 50% Merino wool, at £1.99 on sale. Apparently that was a bargain. I have no idea if its true.

So, after watching countless hours of videos, and undoing everything about 6 times,  I managed to make this hat. Its is supposed to be a cloche hat, but to be honest, i think it looks anything but.

Are you done laughing? Good. 

Hopefully next time I will do a better job of it.

I really like crocheting, especially as I am on holiday, and I am expected to do stuff with the family, so I have not had time to sew anything. At least with crocheting, I can crochet in the car, or when we go to the park, or sit with the rest of the family and crochet, and participate in conversations. Thats not quite possible when sewing, because the noise from the sewing machine is more than enough to drive everyone from your side.

So though I do miss my machine, at least I was able to satisfy my creative urges by learning something new.

Now what can I make next?

xoxo

Dibs