The Deliberate Owl

A few months ago, I learned to crochet!

I actually learned to crochet once before this, about ten years ago. I made exactly one shawl out of a nice soft yarn, didn't follow up by trying to make anything else, and forgot how it all worked.

This time, I'm actually learning.

One of the moms in my forest school group is a Waldorf mom—her older kids attended a Waldorf school before she moved out here. Waldorf schools are big on handcrafts. All the kids learn to crochet. The forest school group has been incorporating a bunch of Waldorf elements (LINK Read more in my school year plan), so in preparation for eventually teaching our kids to crochet, we decided to learn ourselves. So, after book club one Saturday, we pulled out our hooks and yarn.

(Read: How to Consciously Be A Role Model in Creativity, Curiosity, and Crafting for Children)

Project #1: Simple scarf

We started with the most basic crochet stitches: a chain, which is essentially finger knitting, followed by row after row of single crochet stitches. I used up some orange acrylic yarn making a simple scarf. It was good practice for making basic even stitches and rows.

(Read: How I Made a Linen Wrap Skirt With Rainbow Embroidered Flowers)

Project #2: Water bottle holders

A classic Waldorf project is the crocheted water bottle holder, useful for carrying a water bottle on short hikes. Some of the moms started with this project instead of a scarf. It also only uses chain stitches and single crochets (but if you want to make something fancier, there are plenty of free patterns online).

You start with a short chain, then go around in a spiral, increasing, to make a disc for the bottom. Once the disc is the size of your water bottle, stop increasing the disc size, and just go around and around up to make a cylinder. When the cylinder is tall enough, crochet a long handle about 6 stitches wide, and attach it on the opposite edge of the cylinder.

Follow my tutorial to make your own water bottle holder!

(Read: Tutorial: How To Make a Braided Rag Rug from Old Sheets or T-Shirts)

Project #3: More scarves

My kids discovered some soft balls of yarn in my yarn bin, and requested scarves. I made several more!

(Read: Tutorial: How to Make a Plush Rag Rug from Old Socks!)

Project #4: Hat

I made a hat. It's soft yarn, but acrylic, not wool, so it's not the warmest hat. I figured I should use up some of the yarn I already had before getting nicer wool yarn.

Project #5: Shawl

For this project, I learned the double crochet stitch. The whole thing is double crochet stitches. Simple, works up quickly, looks reasonable. My goal was to use up some scrap balls of red acrylic yarn. I started with the darker triangle in the middle, decided it wasn't large enough, and then started using up other shades of red along the edges to make it bigger. I didn't follow a pattern. I'm planning on adding another section or two, because I'd like the shawl to be a bit bigger.

Project #6: Lacey scarf

I was gifted some lovely wool yarn! I love wool. What better excuse to learn how to read a crochet pattern? I followed this pattern.

Next up, now that I'm figuring out how to follow a crochet pattern, I'll make a large shawl with these balls of brown wool.