Learning how to crochet!

In the beginning of January I had blogged about my New Year's Resolutions.

No 2 was to learn how to crochet!

I didn't know how I was going to do that but it has been some years now that I wanted to learn how to crochet. I think ever since finding Lucy at Attic24 and following her and some other crochet blogs!

I had made various efforts to learn from the Internet and I had made a couple of things but I really didn't know what I was doing. Crochet language and symbols were a mystery code to me!

Finally the chance came when one of my new Etsy Greek Street Team friends Vivika of 

The Wandering Deer was teaching amigurumi/crochet at Peirama, a great place to learn various skills.

So I joined in to a five week course every Wednesday. It was fun! We were only three beginners in crochet and that gave Vivika the time to help us learn well.

Here's what we learnt to make.

First and after learning how to choose yarn we learnt the basic stitches. 

  Vivika reassured us that we would be able to make those little animals by the end of the course. I didn't believe her!

 And this is the first thing we made, a bow.

I made the pink one during the lesson!

 And then made another one at home and then turned them into brooches.

Second lesson! How to make a little fish!!!! No way!

 We started!

 Slowly!

 I made it!

I made one at home too!

Third lesson! Make an owl! Really?

Mine is the pink one! It became rather bigger than the model!

 All owls together!

Fourth lesson! Learn to make hearts and try a bigger project! I chose a cute elephant!

The hearts.

The elephant! As it didn't finish in that one lesson hubby said it looked more like Morfonios, a Greek shadow puppet figure! He was right!

 What a funny creature!

Anyway you looked at it!

Even Barca found it strange!

I then made more hearts which I stitched with beads and attached them to pairs of stork scissors.

 And gave them to Vivika and my companions in crochet at a meeting after the final lesson!

At that meeting Elephantine made her first appearance!

Elephantine met Snowy at that meeting too!

I am really happy that I learnt the basics of crochet! Hoping to find more time to crochet I am eager to make more things!Thank you Vivika!

Trying to crochet

I have admired many a time crocheted things. When I was a kid my grandma taught me to do counted cross stitch and a bit of knitting but I was negative with crochet and I never learnt it. I am so sorry I didn't learn it then. It is so difficult for me to self teach myself now. Anyway I found at a book bazaar this book and bought it for just 2 euros and decided to teach my self to do crochet.I don't know how to read symbols so I just follow my instinct. 

We also did a bit of crochet at the jewelry course so I got some hints there too and of course looked at various tutorials on the Internet.

Margie at Resurrection Fern blog and Lucy at Attic24 blog have always been my inspiration for crocheting too. So I gave it a try. Adorned my sea glass with some little baskets and flowers.

Adorned a 3 euro hat.

And learnt how to make hearts.

Hopefully I will teach myself more in summer.

Weekends

Dear friends,
thank you for reading along and for your comments. Today this is probably my preultimate post before my leaving for holidays so it is rather heavy in pictures.
Since April when at last the weather started getting better we have enjoyed our weekends a lot.
Here are a couple of photos from them...
a weekend at the beach in the end of April...
enjoying eating just the two of us...

and collecting some sea glass...

...an afternoon at Vafopouleion Institute to see a Karaghiozis Art Exhibition in May...

...and an art exhibition at the same building...

I loved those spring paintings.
... a Saturday morning at the antique market n June...

 I bought very cheap this cross stitch piece...

 and this old frame with a school prize from 1951. This I will donate to the Education Museum.

 And on the way back I found these crochet beauties on the sidewalk! Hubby was angry and felt embarassed because I collected them but wouldn't it be a pity to leave them there? They need better pictures I know.

...a Sunday morning walk at the sea front promenade where a book exhibition was taking place...

I didn't buy any books as I didn't find anything interesting apart from those glass Karaghiozis figures which we couldn't afford,
but I loved looking at the water lily pond...

and spotting this red dragonfly made me really happy!

 ...walking back home I loved that wall graffitti with the fish. I would love one like that on my summer house wall.

 ...and one more weekend at our summer house...
watching the sunrise early in the morning...

watching a little kid playing at the beach...

watching insects...

 looking at, touching, smelling, collecting, eating fruit from our trees...

...and a couple of days ago attending a shadow puppet performance by Giannis Chatzis, a very good local shadow pupeteer,at Kapantzi Villa. The play was about Las Incantadas, a collection of statues that were stolen from Thessaloniki and are in the Louvre now.

I know I could have made lots of different blogposts out of all these events I talked to you about but since I won't be blogging from now on and for a while due to holidays I wanted to tell you all about them now.I hope you too have enjoyed your weekends in spring and will continue in summer!