I had been knitting for about ten years before I finally learned how to crochet. Several people, including my mom and my aunt tried to teach me but I just couldn't get it. You know the old saying necessity is the mother of invention? Well, necessity taught me how to crochet.
When I was in nursing school, a bunch of us got together to go out to a dinner theatre right around Christmas. I bought a beautiful new dress for the occassion, and I wanted a shawl to go with it in case it was chilly inside (I'm always cold). But, as you might imagine, shawls aren't much in demand at stores in Minnesota in December.
The obvious alternative was to make one. Now I didn't have much time (2-3 weeks). Knitted shawl patterns are few and far between, and probably would've pushed the limit even if I had found one. I knew that if I could figure out how to crochet, I could come up with an end product much faster than with knitting.
So, I picked up a how-to booklet and set at it. I held my work as if I was knitting. I wound the yarn around the hook with my right hand, as if I was knitting. Doing it this way, it didn't take long for me to realize that the difference between the two techniques was the direction the yarn went around the tool. Using your right hand, with knitting the yarn goes under then back over the needle, with crochet it goes over then under the hook. Once I figured that out it was a piece of cake.
Over the years I've gradually changed how I hold my work to something closer to the right way, but it works for me so I don't sweat it. I still can't get the hang of wrapping the yarn around the fingers of the left hand to control the tension. When I work with thread I do wrap it around my little finger, but with yarn I just hold it with my little finger. Which explains the cramping I get in that finger when I work for hours at a time.
I prefer the look and feel of knitted sweaters over crocheted, but I love to crochet afghans, they work up so quickly and tend to be thicker and warmer than those that are knitted. I haven't made one in several years though, ever since a number of cats have joined my family. They are wonderful to work on in the winter, keep you so warm and toasty. The perfect way to conserve energy I say. In the summer I used to sit spread eagled on the bed with the material between my legs to be comfortable.
I really enjoy thread crochet. I have four nieces that are head over heels in Barbie dolls, and I enjoy crocheting up clothes for them. They work up quickly.
Most of the patterns available though are for displays. They're gorgeous, I have a ton of them and I enjoy making them. I never had Barbies as a child but now I have a few (to make sure the clothes fit when I make them). Yeah right. :)
That really was the reason when I first got them. I bought a pattern book from Annie's Attic and made up almost everything in it, but when I tried them on, not one of them fit. I have a really bad habit of not checking my gauge so that may have been the problem, or maybe it was the brand of hook I used. I tried the next size larger hook, but then they were too big. So, sometime I'm going to have to modify the patterns to get them to work. Funny, it's only patterns by this one designer that I have a problem with, all the rest of the Annie's Attic patterns work just great.
As I mentioned, there aren't many patterns for Barbie doll clothes that kids can play with. So I'm on a mission to design my own. I'm thinking of using size 20 thread too, the thinking being that the fabric would have less (or smaller) holes that kids would get frustrated at getting arms and legs caught in. And the smaller size would allow for more intricate detail. You might think that's a contradiction... designs with intricate detail that kids can play with, but I don't think so. We'll just have to wait and see.
I love making doilies and such with thread too, but I don't really use doilies so I don't know what to do with them. I need a good reason to make them. You know, like a charity that needs doilies... know of any?