Some time ago, I was all a-quiver over the publication of this book. It was going to be my saviour and guide into the World of Crochet. Sadly, this post was pretty much the beginning and end of my crochet experience.
I think my problem with learning to crochet in the past was that all “how to” books start with making a chain and then going backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards in rows and it is boring. Plus I just didn’t “get” it; the edges were never straight and despite the fantastic instructions, I just couldn’t get excited about it. I just wanted to do the funny stitches in granny squares and make cute Amigurumi. I thought that to be able to do that sort of thing, I had to slog on with the rows, and that was all I could hope to achieve when doing simple crochet.
I was wrong, of course, and realised that when I got a copy of Tess Dawson’s book, Crochet Designs. The patterns in Tess’s book are cute and scrummy and, in the main, very simple indeed.
Like this one:
It uses just one stitch (treble), which I had never tried before (I barely got past double crochet with my backwards and forwards boring rows), but this pattern was marked BASIC (i.e. for idiots like me!) so I gave it a go. The back of the book has incredibly clear “how to” instructions – obviously not as detailed as Happy Hooker, but the diagrams are LARGE! – and by flipping backwards and forwards between the pattern and the instructions, I prooduced this:
That’s as far as I’m going with that one for the moment. I want to start again with a different yarn – possibly the angora used in the book – so that I can have something really pretty and wearable at the end. 
But once I’d got this treble into the chain space business sorted, I realised I could do granny squares. Maybe not everyone’s idea of bliss, but I have tons of leftover scraps of yarn and always wanted to make a blanket with them, but didn’t fancy knitting squares. Now, though, there is no stopping me!!
There are probably squillions of granny square patterns out there, but I used one from Rowan Magazine #31. They started off quite squiffy, but now I’m getting a more even tension and getting faster, too. I wil crochet together all the squares with white yarn and hopefully I will eventually have a blanket big enough to cover my bed. Though I’ll have to force myself to put the hook down tomorrow because I’m neglecting the second zippy jacket in favour of my new addiction!
so instead it has a suitably girly name and is perfect for keeping warm while you’re wandering about a draughty spaceship. I bet they’re air-conditioned. 
