Once upon a time, a long, long, long time ago - like last century - I learned to crochet. I was probably about 5 when my grandmother first taught me. I could chain stitch like nobody's business!
The last time I crocheted was sometime in middle school. I made the ugliest, scratchiest, brightest orange slippers ever seen. Acrylic yarn was big back then along with worsted wool - ICK! Thankfully - there are NO pictures of them.
Fast forward to now. I've been inspired to see if I could revive my very old, very rusty skills and see if there something new I could learn too.
I LOVE crocheted horse fly bonnets. This is one I replaced the ears on with peppermint swirl batik.
But even the simplest of them are $20 at the saddle shop and they are a plain solid color. Once you add trim or bling - the price can skyrocket. I found some custom made ones online going for $120 - $170! Granted, they were pretty but that's so not in my budget. And I know I can make my own and trim it out for a fraction of that price!
I have this as my prototype. Not sure who made this one - but the tassels are not even in placement or count. I am strictly using it for size and shape.
I found this really pretty cotton yarn - shades of blues and greens. There are TONS of pretty cottons yarns out there, which could cause other problem down the road but I'll worry about that later.
A quick review of the slip knot, chain stitch (foundation stitch) and single crochet stitch from online videos and I had this.
YIKES!! Still rusty as all get out! I pulled it out and tried again.
MUCH BETTER!!! Not perfect but the fingers are remembering what to do, how to hold the yarn and relax at the same. Too much tension in the fingers carries over into the stitches.
There are a few more stitches I need to learn and practice before I'm ready to start on making a fly bonnet but it's good to have a goal. It's also good to have another kind of handwork project to carry around with me.
The downside to this? There are tons of soft cottons yarns in hundreds of beautiful colors...and I probably have batiks or solid cottons to coordinate with most all of them for the ear covers.
I haven't crocheted for years, either. Although I did make myself a few wearable things way back when.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know horse fly bonnets existed, but they look like a cute project. And of course the horse will need one in every colour!