Storytelling Sunday:Pick Your Precious|Granny's crochet hooks.

If you have arrived from the CCW Blog Hop, then you are very welcome and you can find the hop here. Please feel free to hang around and read on about Storytelling Sunday. 

First Sunday in the month? It is time for Storytelling Sunday hosted by Sian over at High In The Sky. Everyone is welcome with short or long stories, photos, layouts or simply words. Always such good stories and blogs to find and spend time reading. Sian has suggested that we pick our precious things to tell stories about this year which is splendid. 

This month I want to tell you about a recent precious gift, my maternal Granny's crochet hooks. My dear Aunt heard that I was attempting to learn to crochet and so she dug out my Granny's hooks for me. I cannot tell you how much these spurred me on to learn and the pleasure I get from using something my Granny used. I love the container they came in too.

I love that there are so many different sizes and quality, the blue plastic one, I can imagine may have been a freebie from a magazine, or maybe a 'starter' hook for one of her daughters or grandchildren? The teeny-tiny ones? I cannot wait to be able to do such close work. Both she and my Aunt made lace, although mainly done on a cushion with a million weighted threads...wait, I have just thought of a precious for another month :)

Now, I am a new starter at this, in fact after it being a new years resolution for 2012, it was only this past month that I finally feel I 'get it'.

I first properly had a go at our UKS social group's retreat last March and it was painful, I couldn't get how to chain the foundation for a looooonnnnnggggg while. As my Mum said when she saw me on my return home it was like a "cow shooting a musket", which is definitely a Granny saying!

I am completely ham-fisted where textiles are concerned, Mrs Mcklintock my home economics teacher would have agreed.

However, I have been determined to succeed, I don't wish to be able to hook anything amazing, just make some small doilies and flowers as embellishments for my papercrafting. I tried a few youtube videos, I bought a book, I started buying a serial 'how-to' magazine but I just wasn't getting it. I put the hooks and yarn away in a shiny new clear plastic box and it peeked out reproachfully at me from where I put it behind the sewing machine. 

Then in September as part of Shimelle's Learn Something New Every Day she encouraged us to try something new each saturday, well I persevered one saturday evening and managed a few rows of stitches that were ok. 

Flushed with success at being able to go up and down, I looked at the crochet flower book and wondered how on earth I could go round corners into a circle.

Back in the box it went.

My friend Sue then sent me a link to a youtube series from the wonderful Olivia, aka girlybunches. One evening (waiting for the snow to start falling) a couple of weeks ago I sat down and watched and she completely demystified it for me and by the time the snow started falling at about 00:50 I had made a doily. Just like that.

"* *** ******"

That was not swearing in euphoria, it was what I would have said if I had let my punster side out (which I didn't), she would have said I was hooked. I bet you are glad I didn't let her get away with that cheap hook-in tag line.

I like to make a layout for Storytelling Sunday, it has usually been one of my favourite layouts each month and so I chose a great sketch and idea to follow this month. Wilna Furstenburg has posted two fabulously inspiring videos over at 2 Peas for the In The Mood To Scrap series. I am almost embarrassed to link my layout to hers as "cow shooting a musket" didn't do it justice, no nice white frame, pink pawprints all over it lol. "cow shooting a musket"'s friend "impatient cow" joined in and even though Wilna said leave the impasto overnight, she had to stick her finger into the best bit at bedtime and splodged it. Oh dear. Anyway, it was good painty fun and although it doesn't have quite the skill, I am pleased with it well enough. 

In the spirit of the thing I wanted to try a more delicate yarn to try the longed for embellishment. I bought some mercerised cotton this week and attempted to make the doily in half-size as my first scrapbook embellishment and as you can see it was pretty much a disaster, but the only way is up from here and surely this is the best layout to put it onto? 

Thank you so much for reading and I will hopefully see you next month.