Crochet is for the Reluctant

Any of you that know me (or read my blog enough) know that I'm completely fine knitting pretty much anything.  Sure, there are certain facets of knitting that I occasionally quarrel with (ahem FAIRISLE) or certain projects that seem to take me a long time to finish (DALE!!!) but overall, knitting and I have a pretty decent give-and-take relationship.

Not so with crochet.

I will even go so far as to say that crocheting and I- well, we were that person that you knew because they were your Mom's friend's kid, so you had to be polite, but you really didn't have much in common and usually avoided at all costs when possible to avoid empty-air conversations.

I was finished making the basic shape for my cupcake hat yesterday, and realized that the only thing I had left to do was the picot crochet edging to make the hat look like it had frosting on it.  I knew that if I ignored it, this finishing detail would banish this poor, cute hat to the bottom of a frightening black hole pile of a few projects that I don't work on as much as I should.  So I gathered my things and headed up to Yarn Harbor, where I knew I would find reinforcements, help, and chocolate treats to ease the pain.

I got the proper crochet hook and sat down, grumbling and unhappy to learn a new technique.  Remember- this is crocheting.  I love learning new knitting techniques, but I basically have to re-learn how to crochet every single time I need to do it.  Luckily, one of the awesome staff members guided me through exactly how to loop, schwoop, and pull- and even told me I was pretty decent at it (which I'm certain that she was just being nice.  Crochet and I will never get along.  NEVER!).  With a lot of help and encouragement from the staff and some new friends (plus a lot of counting and a lot little bit of swearing) I ended up with this:

My little cupcake had a swirly frosting edge!  I was so elated with my success that my fellow knitters at the table (the lovely S and another nice lady I can't remember her name) were able to talk me into adding some "sprinkles", which I have to admit were a really good idea and perfect for this project.  We picked out some adorable star-shaped buttons, and I easily got them all sewed on at home!

I LOVE how this project turned out- it's SUPER adorable and absolutely perfect for its little 3-year old recipient!  SCORE ONE for Katie attempting to crochet!!
You can see that Maeby shares my enthusiasm:

This pattern is adorable enough that I might attempt to remember how I did the crochet edge.

Might.

;)