Playing Hooky

When the snowmen have been built and your fingers are too cold to stay outside any longer, there's something very special about cosying up on a snow day and knowing that there's nowhere else you can, or should, be.  It's times like this that my creativity soars.

I have a secret to share.  Shhh, promise you wont tell?  I've been playing hooky from knitting and trying a bit of crochet!

I've tried  bits and bobs of crochet over the years but it doesn't seem to come as naturally to me as knitting.  People tend to say that you favour whichever one you learnt first and I think that may be true.

My foray into crochet was inspired by the beautiful work I saw going on at Knit and Natter group.  I couldn't manage anything quite that fancy yet but I was itching to remind myself of how it works.  It had been so long since I'd made a granny square that I had to go back to YouTube and find a tutorial to refresh my memory.  

I found making granny squares to be quite addictive, especially as I worked out a way to carry my yarn up the back of the work without breaking off and re-attaching (oh, how I dislike sewing in ends...) when I alternated colours.

I was very tempted to keep on going and make a blanket but in the end I made two sides of a cushion cover and then whipped up a plain cover to go under it on the sewing machine with some fabric I had in my stash.

The colours are rather more understated than my usual choices but our second hand sofas are ready to retire, really, so I'm hoping that the ecru and stone yarns that I chose will match whatever furniture we end up with.  

Now that I've caught the granny square bug I'm thinking of revisiting this project, which is so pretty that I feel guilty every time I see it neglected with my stash of yarns.

Have you been doing any cold-weather crafting?