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How to get back into the groove of crocheting

by Lucynda Rowen

I have spent countless hours sitting in the family room with the TV on and yarn and a crochet hook in my hand. I've made several beautiful afghans and tried several times to make beautiful sweaters as well (no luck in that department unless sleeves of different lengths become fashionable). I have a powerful need to fairly brainless activities to keep my hands busy and crocheting has always been one of my favorites. If my hands aren't busy I am more likely to eat and when there busy I'm more likely to be inspired as well.

We do all get out of the habit of crocheting sometimes. We find our time and our hands occupied with other projects and our yarn and hook can get put aside or stuffed in a grocery bag in our closet gathering dust. For some reason I find myself crocheting in the summertime and doing counted cross stitch in the winter. I'm not really sure why this happens. It should be the other way around but for me its not. Sometimes I just finish a really big project that took a long time and I loose my taste for it for a while.

There are several ways to get back into the habit of crocheting. One method that I have always found to work very well it to drive down to my local craft store and browse through the yarns to see what's on sale. There is nothing like seeing a yarn that was 6 dollars a ball go on sale for .99 cents to motivate you into starting a project.

Another way to motivate yourself is to search the internet for free patterns. I have a lovely afghan in my formal living room made from sunset red heart yarn that I made from a free pattern on the internet.

Yet another good way to get motivated is to start thinking about Christmas and all of the money your going to have to spend on Christmas gifts for everyone if you don't make those gifts yourself.

I once got back into the habit of crocheting by reading a historical romance novel that took place in a cold winter setting. The writer had the protagonist knit the hero a cream colored cable sweater. I put my book down, leaned my head back, and closed my eyes as I thought about how warm and beautiful that cream colored cable knit sweater would be. Thinking of that definitely got me back in the mood to crochet. Since I can't make sweaters I searched online for a method of making crochet cables and then I made a cream colored afghan with cables across the front of it.

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