I have a new hobby - crocheting. Since February of this year I have been crocheting non-stop. I just love it! Brenda, my mother-in-law, is the person who started my obsession. Brenda started me crocheting baby blankets for a foundation called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, a group that helps comfort families with still-borns. Brenda's friend Tara, who is in her ward in South Jordan, UT had a still-born baby in May 2007. Her little girl was 8 months along when she died of too much iron received from her mother's body. When Tara delivered her baby, a lady came into her hospital room and offered her (as a free service) a hand-crocheted baby blanket to wrap her little girl in and to keep as a memento of her. She then offered to take pictures of her little girl with Tara and her husband, also did plaster castings of her cute little hands and feet. Tara was so touched she wanted to get involved to help other families going through this trial. She is now the regional representative of the group in Utah (they are a nation-wide organization). As a memorial to her still-born daughter, she and about 15 others she enlisted set out to crochet 100 baby blankets by her daughter's one-year birthday. I was brought on in February to help in the last few months, as was my entire family (Mom, Claire, Adrienne) and several others. When May came, we had over 300! That is where my obsession started. I crocheted over 20 blankets before May (4 months) and I have been crocheting ever since.
My newest thing (as of about 2 months ago) that I taught myself how to do is crochet baby beanies (hats). My sister-in-law, Jenn, taught me how crochet cute little headbands and make flowers to attach to the headbands and beanies. I really wanted to try to sell them and about 1 week before Thanksgiving I found out a girl in my ward in El Segundo was participating in a craft fair on Main Street in El Segundo 1 week after Thanksgiving. I was crocheting like mad all during Thanksgiving break to try to build up my inventory for the fair. I made 20 beanies and 12 headbands in 2 weeks! And I was fairly successful - I sold 2 beanies for $10 each and 4 headbands for $6 each at the fair and had 2 orders for adult beanies after the fair (and because of the fair). Here are a couple of pictures!
Crocheting during Thanksgiving in Utah. The next picture is the beanie created as a result:
Here are a couple pictures from the craft fair:
I will have more pictures of my creations in my next post.
