crochet update

My mom starting teaching me how to crochet right around Thanksgiving of 2004. She's left handed like I am, but her grandmother taught her how to crochet right handed so it was a pretty tediously frustrating process for me ... to say the very least. I shed tears about the days it took me to figure this out. It was on Thanksgiving that it finally clicked in my head and I got it. It was a magical day.

She taught me how to make a scarf with a double crochet stitch. And I went to town. I have made over 100 (no exaggeration) scarves this way. Lots of different yarn and a couple of different size needles. Lately, I've branched out to other square and rectangle shaped things.

baby blankets

shawls

dish towels

wash clothes

all with this distinct double stitch. I love it but was growing tired it all my projects looking the same to me.

Enter youtube. The Art of Crochet my Teresa has episodes and episodes of how to crochet this, that and the other. ALL LEFT HANDED. (signal high pitch singing -- AHHHHHHHHHH)

I was so excited.

My ultimate goal is to learn the basket weave stitch (I already have some fantastic brown yarn I found on clearance for the basket weave), the puff stitch and how to crochet flowers. I decided to start with the basics to get warmed up.

First, I learned the single crochet. done. easy. Thanks Teresa.

Second, I learned the double half crochet. done. not as easy but I got it after a couple of views.

Today, I decided to watch the double crochet ... you know, the one I mastered almost 6 years ago.

When other crocheters look at my double crochet they always say it looks really unique and I just figure it's because I'm left handed. Even my mom thought it looked different from what she does. So I started calling it the inverted double stitch.

Well, now I know why.

What I have been calling the "inverted double stitch" is some made of work of art. It is not the same as what's on the video.

This means that either my mother, who had not crocheted for over a decade by the time she taught me, forgot exactly what to do and taught me how she remembered it.

OR my tediously frustrated mind interpreted what my mother was showing me into something pretty different.

Both are completely possible.

Here are swatches of the right way and my way.

The double crochet is on the left and what I've been doing is on the right.

The main visible difference is the height and length. The right way is taller and longer.

This is mine ... the "inverted double crochet" ha. I don't if it's an actual stitch that exists. I have't been able to find a youtube video about it yet! It's pretty. It's just not a double crochet.

This is the actual double crochet. I like it too. It's not too much different - especially in the pictures. In making it, there are only two big differences. I left out one part completely and another part I did a different way.

I think it's pretty funny that I've been doing it "wrong" for so long. I'm excited to know the correct way. I think I'm going to put my basket weave video on hold and go make a washcloth with the actual double crochet!!