Sunday, January 9, 2011

Just Wanted To See If I Could...

Well, before you read any further, just know I couldn't.  I am currently away on holidays and I begrudgingly did not take a single papercrafting supply with me.  Not a skerrick, scrap, nor stamp to be seen.  Needless to say the papercrafter's equivalent of DTs started hapening about 20 minutes before we reached our holiday house.  Actually, they started about an hour and a half into the car ride.  No wait, in truth, they were niggling at me the day before we left when I realized that our van was already bursting at the seams, literally, with all the kids, kids' belongings, and other requisite holiday basics straight from the get go.  Sigh.  So, I thought I'd try out a little experiment to see if I could spend our family beach vacation truly "on vacation" sans my beloved card making supplies.  What was I thinking?

My inner crafter was stirring and could not, would not, be ignored.  Just before we arrived at the beach house, I asked my husband to pull into the neighboring town's local shopping center so that we could get some "supplies".   You guessed it, the word "supplies" does not only have to mean fresh food, toilet paper etc. (all the extra stuff needed for our stay, but "crafting supplies" as well!) You would have been so proud of me.  Amidst the throws of my crafting DTs, I had the momentary clarity of mind to suddenly decide to take up crochet!


Do note that I have never crocheted in my entire life and would probably stuggle figuring out which was the "business" end of a hook (let alone spell it), but I was gasping at the chance to give it a whirl.

I hopped out of the car with the finesse of a Hollywood stuntwoman extroidinare.   I raced into the supermarket and threw a few token food things into my shopping cart, paid and practically ran to the Kmart I spied initially from the interstate, which was only a few stores down from the supermarket.  Straight to the yarn section I went.  I had no idea what to get but thought anything reasonably thin should do as I had cooked up the idea of crochet flower embellishments for my cards.  Genius!    I grabbed some super thin stuff that looked like industrial sized dental floss, baby yarn in a few different colors, a couple of varying sized crochet hooks, and a very dog-eared pamphlet on popular crochet patterns.  Whooohoo!  Christmas has come again and it has only been 2 and a bit weeks since it was here last.  Nice.  I shoved my "crafty" crafting purchases into one of the grocery bags (read: shoved the bag way down under the diapers, soap, and washing powder) and trotted gleefully back to the car.  Hoping that my jig wouldn't be up on my arrival back.   I loaded my "shopping" into the tiny available spaces left in the van and cheekily grinned the rest of the way to the house.

Now, how to crochet?  Hmmm?  I hadn't thought that far, but was revelling in the solace of knowing that I had something crafty to do now and no need to go cold turkey thankfully. Bliss.

So how'd I go?  Well, I am still going.  I had to come out of the crafting closet and openly crochet eventually, which was nice.  My husband just shook his head upon my great reveal, patted me on the back and wished me good luck.  Goodness knows I'll need it.  Now to find out what in the ham fat a DC and a TR are?  Tragic I know.  It is a bit tricky, I must admit not knowing how to crochet and with only internet connection via my iPhone (and that is proving to be very frustratingly limited at best) as my guide.  So stay tuned and I will be sure to post of my exploits (or frayed knots and tangles more likely) when I get back to the city in a few days time.  Promise.  But just know that I am a happier camper now though.  Thanks for coming on my adventures with me.  I appreciate your company more than you'll know.    

8 comments:

Ingrid Danvers said...

I enjoyed reading this story. Have fun crocheting!

good_day1214 said...

Hee hee... What a fun story! Have fun on your vacay and good luck with crocheting. It took a bit to get used to, but you'll get the hang of it in no time. You'll have to post your initial creation!

Karen C. said...

I have tried crocheting, but it never 'clicked' for me!! Hope you have better luck - I think the little crocheted flowers would be so cute on cards. Now if I could knit these flowers I would be happy - I love knitting!! Have a crafty holiday - would love to see your projects when you've finished.

Linda Suarez said...

Have fun learning to crochet! Crocheting I can do, knitting, nada. I guess I never figured out how to handle two needles at one one. Ha!

Dana said...

HAHAHA, LOVED reading this post Jen!
I completely understand your need to do something, anything crafty while away. Good on you for attempting to learn something new. Crocheting is actually a good thing to learn by oneself...you can do it!
Oh, and you asked what PP I used on my "dress form" card. It is Two Scoops by Basic Grey!

Keva said...

Oh goodness! You poor thing! I get where you're coming from. I hope you make it through. :)

As for the ribbon on my card, I'm not sure that I've ever had the papertrey grosgrain to fray.

Stephanie said...

Too funny.......but, what an adventurous girl you are! I was self taught in crochet and I'm sure you'll produce something absolutely lovely for all of us to see!!! Can't wait!

paula e. said...

what a great story! i'm sure you've found out by now that DC is "double crochet" and TC is "triple crochet"... i think there's a link on nichole heady's blog over at pti for an adorable crochet flower to use on cards... good luck with your crochet endeavor.