Quarantining with Crochet

I'm a self taught crocheter. Someone tried to show me how once as a kid and it went entirely over my head. I just couldn't figure it out and went back to knitting scarves exclusively. The faster pace of crochet appealed to me and I didn't have the patience for the more complicated patterns I saw in knitting. I boarded with another family in high school, which was great, but it meant I spent my summers and vacations back at home, away from my friends. So I went to youtube and decided to try my hand at crochet once again. I spent hours pouring over basic stitches, pulling out the wonky work I had done over and over again, getting frustrated at how uneven all my swatches turned out. My first complete project was an oversized and uneven beret. But I was hooked (pun intended). 

My First Crochet Project

Fast forward a few years and here we are in 2020. A year no one could have predicted and crochet has been keeping me sane. I've bought more yarn and completed more projects than I have in years. It's helped me stay occupied when I feel overwhelmed and made me feel productive when I was hopeless.

And within this old hobby I found a new passion. I discovered the existence of mosaic crochet this year and my only regret is not trying it sooner. I often search for patterns and ideas on youtube and stumbled across Tinna Thorudottir Thorvaldar's channel and was shocked that her beautiful creations were made with crochet. Her bubbly personality and her colorful, ornate, and inspiring creations got me excited about crochet in a way I never felt before. I admit I was a little intimidated. How could such ornate projects be as simple as she claimed? I decided to get through some WIPs (work in progress) first before diving in. I think I also knew deep down once I started it would be hard to stop. Finally, I decided to go through Tinna's tutorial series to learn the basics. It was way simpler than I expected. The process was fun and the results were beautiful. Tinna has a Facebook group for people working on her patterns and I'm so glad I joined. It's such a supportive and helpful group and while I have yet to post I have spent hours looking at all the beautiful creations. Once my latest order of yarn came in I was off. 

Mosaic crochet is definitely more time consuming and requires more focus but the results are gorgeous and the process is rewarding. The possibilities seem endless. I have yet to finish my first full mosaic crochet project but the reason for this rare blog post is a forced break I'm imposing on myself because my wrists are hurting from working on it so much! Below are a couple pictures of my WIP using Tinna's Casablanca pattern. (Here is the link to her Ravelry if you're interested) 

The color way was based on "what colors are available right now" so there wasn't much planning involved. I'm loving the way it's turning out but I will do more planning next time. I'm going to end up with blankets piling out of every drawer if this obsession keeps up! 

All in all this era of quarantine has given me a new appreciation for a hobby that has seen me through rough patches over the years. I hadn't realized how much I turned to crochet when life was difficult. I also dismissed how much satisfaction and joy it has provided me. Sometimes it really is the little things. I'm glad my bored high school self poured those hours in so that now I can enjoy such creative patterns.