" Collections " Part Two

Hi Folks!

Today I am going to post probably one of my most extensive and expensive collections. It has been a hobby of mine for over twenty years now and is very near and dear to my heart.

It is my crochet collection.

I was taught by my husbands late aunt how to do a single crochet stitch when we first moved to Southern Illinois. His aunt didn't know how to read patterns and I quickly grew bored with just knowing how to do the one stitch. Unless you've crocheted yourself, you couldn't imagine how much time I spent making my first full sized afghan with a single crochet stitch!!

So one day I went out and bought a crochet magazine that showed how to make a simple granny square. I learned all of the abbreviations from this magazine and from there I bought more books about crochet and literally taught myself these skills.

Today I can make anything from a pattern and have even designed my own doilies. Unfortunately however, arthritis and carpal tunnel have slowed down my favorite hobby to the point of near nonexistence.

 Still I manage to work through the pain because that feeling I get of giving something hand crocheted to someone brings me great pleasure.

The first thing that one needs to crochet is a needle or two!!

Personally I don't think that you can have enough needles. And you should have at least one in every size!

 Next you will need to figure out what you want to make. You can get so many ideas from books and magazines. You can also spend hundreds of dollars on these books and magazines. If you do, I hope that you have a husband like mine who never said a word about it!

I have hundreds of magazines. I have long since stopped my subscriptions as I thought "How many patterns can one have?".

The books were all at least twenty dollars each. But they were acquired over years. 

Finally, if you want to crochet you will need some yarn.....

And some more yarn....

And maybe a bit more for good measure!

My absolute favorite thing to crochet is doilies.

For that you will need some crochet thread....

I can never have enough colors!

Someday my dream would be to be able to have the surgery for the carpal tunnel and then have cortisone shots in my hands.

I have had the shots in my hands before and they hurt a lot.

But I will say that the pain was worth all of the time I was able to crochet pain free!

I hope that I never have to give this hobby up completely.

But if I had to, I would have to make sure that someone that loved crocheting as much as I do, would get my collection.

Oh Dear, I just remembered a crochet project that I have promised to my daughter Ginny. I am almost finished with it so I better get on that! She designed my blog header for me, it's the least that I can do!

Thanks for visiting my collection!