hola, isabel

My Grandma taught me how to crochet when I was about 9 years old. I really enjoyed doing it, but I wasn’t that good. Plus, I wasn’t sure what to make. As a little girl I didn’t have a huge need for pot holders or afghans. But still I would crochet. My Mom started making crocheted hat that were donated to Kosovo refugees when I was in college. I decided to make some hats also, although I wasn’t as fast as my Mom. She would buy the cheap yarn from the fabric store and crochet away. My Dad would tease her and tell her the hats looked more like targets than hats. She figured the refugees didn’t care what they looked like, as long as they kept them warm. Her hats rule. They are warm. She is also quite capable of making very stylish ones. Oh, and she makes adorable Christmas stockings for everyone she knows.

After becoming an expert on the crocheted hats and after everyone I knew had a hat to match every outfit, I got bored with them. I also was becoming broke after everyone in the small town where I lived started having baby showers. I was buying onesies and little pink dresses like crazy. I figured I needed to come up with a solution for this. I decided to start crocheting baby hats. Oh, they were cute and fun and there is oh so many cute and snuggly yarns out there for baby hats. I would give the cute little hats as baby gifts along with a cute little outfit that matched the hat perfectly. My hats were always the hit of the baby showers.

Again, after becoming an expert on the baby hats, I became bored with them. About this same time my Mom started making baby booties (also to be donated to needy children-my Mom’s good like that). The booties were also so cute, and could be made pretty fast. A pair of baby booties with a baby hat is the perfect baby gift, from the heart. I have been giving baby booties and hats for years now. Last year I incorporated baby scarves-which aren’t safe at all. But are so cute.

These are the only things I have ever crocheted. I have tried to read crochet patterns, but they mean nothing to me.

Last night my Church had an evening where the older women came and taught the younger women the “dying arts” of crochet and knitting. My best friend May, and I went expecting to learn how to knit. Instead we were taught how to read a crochet pattern and we even started on a new pattern for baby booties. It was so exciting to see this new world open up before me. I can’t wait to go and buy some new baby yarn and get started on new booties for my baby (and everyone else’s babies). I inherited a bunch of yarn when The King’s grandma passed away last year. I have been wanting to use it for something special. Of course I did use the yarn to make my new niece and nephew hats, booties and scarves.

The best part? The women helping May and I last night told me “your lines are so straight. They look perfect!”. Thanks, it’s not my first time.

Apparently now I know I can make Britney the blue booties, since word is out that she had a baby boy today. Damn girl, did you have to name your baby the same name as my precious kitty?