Hello Everyone at Crochet Talk!

My name is Theresa L and I am a fan of crochet. I learned the craft when I was just ten as part of a Girl Scout badge I was working on. My first project was a vest which was very in keeping with the style of the 70's.

I put the skills away until I became pregnant with my first child. At that point, I began crocheting with a vengeance. I made blankets, sweaters, caps and booties. I did the same for each of next two children and my granddaughter. In between the children and since the last one was born, I have made numerous afghans both for my family and as gifts.

Today, most of what I make is given away as gifts. I am hoping to connect with others who love the craft as much as I do.

Hello Theresa,

Welcome to Crochet Talk! Wow, I would love to see pictures of your Girl Scout work, if they are still available to you. I have been thinking about working some with my third grade Brownies in learning some simple techniques.

I did crochet more before having three children in the home! My how time changes with more kids! They are a blessing!

Nice to meet you!

Hi Barbi,

It's nice to meet you too! I wish I had photos of the vest. The only thing my mother still has pictures of is skirt and vest I sewed from a pattern for a sewing badge. The vest was white and hung just past my hips. It was adorned with fringe all the way around the bottom.

I also have three kids but only one still at home. I watch my granddaughter 5 nights a week because her mom works nights so we are pretty busy too. I tried to teach my daughter to crochet but she is left handed while I am right-handed. Needless to say, it didn't work out too well. Fortunately, she was excited for me to crochet baby stuff for her so I got to indulge my hobby a little. I also kept many of the pieces I had made for her and passed them on. That was a sweet moment.

Wow your list of things that you've crocheted already looks impressive. I haven't tried big projects like that for years! I'm currently teaching one of my students now in Afghans and other crochet projects. One of them is making a baby dress which I always find so challenging. Sometimes I have difficulty understanding the instructions and have to research about it. I really dislike making clothes because I always end up making something but its smaller than the original. I think its coz our crochet hooks here are very different from the US size ones and there aren't any local crochet hooks as big as yours. Still I try to be flexible and do other small stuff and experiment with various hook sizes and tension to adjust the size of items to my approval.

Kaisensai,

Maybe you could try using a crochet hook rom your region that's a size or two larger than what the pattern calls for. Try something small and see if the finished piece comes out closer to the size the pattern suggests. If it works, you could adjust all your patterns accordingly. Otherwise, you could try purchasing crochet hooks from the US online through craft outlets or on eBay. Hope those ideas help. Nice to meet you too, by the way!

Actually I found an obscure store locally that sells US sized hooks and yarns that you can't buy in a typical craft store here. The only problem is that its 3x more expensive than the local brands. :P I really have to save up to get those. So far the only crochet hook US size that I have is size J or number 6 or 7. I have to buy the hooks one at a time so I chose the hook that is most commonly used in patterns that I have downloaded online. As for local ones, the largest that we have is not even as big as the size J. I heard that the sizes are based on Chinese sizes. So most of the stuff that I make using patterns I get online, I really end up experimenting with it to get the desired size of the pattern. I've never tried Ebay before though. I might just check it out.