At the last couple of meetings of the Ash knitting group we have been having a go at broomstick crochet. My sample is a bit wonky but not too bad.

It was quite fun to do, though I think it might get a little tedious after a while. Mary had made a lovely scarf using the technique but said that working it did get a bit boring after a while. It was fun to do but I’m not sure I see that much broomstick crochet in my future 🙂

I have just finished reading Knitting in the Old Way: Designs and Techniques from Ethnic Sweaters by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Deborah Robson (a very interesting read by the way). The last chapter is on combining crochet with knitting, and they talk about the differences between Eastern and Western crochet. Basically with Western crochet you poke your hook through both legs of the chain of the stitch, whereas with Eastern crochet you only use one leg of the chain. So there are two different kinds of Eastern crochet, the version where you use the front leg of the chain, and the version where you use the back leg. The front leg version is also known as Shepherd’s knitting, and the back leg version is also known as Bosnian crochet. After reading the description of Shepherd’s knitting I was fascinated by how it would come out so I had a go.

I worked a length of chain, joined it into a circle, and then worked a slip stitch into the front leg of each chain as I went round. Carry on until you have had enough.

Here is the side which forms away from you as you are working.

And here is the side which forms towards you as you are working.

It looks a lot like knitting, but on its side.

It was quite fun to do, though I am a rather slow crocheter. The finished fabric is not as elastic as knitting, and it does have a bit of a tendancy to bias. I think you could make really interesting things with using bands of this separating sections of knitting. Definitely something to play a bit more with.

We have been having a go at crochet at the knitting group that I go to once a month in Ash, Surrey. So here I present my first go at a granny square:

and a variation on the traditional granny square:

Made out of the most horrid yarn known to man! (with the possible exception of some truly awful nylon stuff left over from my Nan crocheting ponchos in the 70s, which has now been relegated to stringing up the Christmas cards).

The crocheting has been good fun, and very useful to know how to actually read a pattern. I am rather a self-taught crocheter, and the sum of my knowledge comes from the Ladybird Book of Crochet (for those of you not familiar with the Ladybird books, they are small hardback books, the size of a thin paperback with about 20 – 30 pages, and lots of pictures, aimed at introducing children to various topics). I don’t think I will be abandoning the knitting any time soon though. I like the fabric produced by knitting more, although crochet does certainly have its uses and is handy to know.