What Are You Learning This Summer?

Maybe it's a holdover from when my children were younger, but I love to take on a new challenge in the summer, and I encouraged them to do the same.  What better time than summer to take on a new hobby or learn a new skill, when supposedly 'the livin' is easy' and we have long stretches of daylight before us?  Unfortunately, being a creative type, I feel blessed, cursed, with so many interests that there's hardly enough time in the day to do them all. 

This summer I decided to take up crocheting after watching my mom whip up one Granny Square after another for a baby blanket that she was making for a church project.  People seem to whip through crochet projects at lightening speed, while I seem to plod along forever with my knitting.  If I'm out without my sketch book, it's always fun to have a yarn project with me. I can't people watch and read at the same time. My DD says that I'm latent ADHD!

What caught my interest was a magazine with Granny Squares on the cover.  I never had any interest in making Granny Squares, since they always looked so Granny-ish, but then I realized that will all the new colorful yarns on the market, that they didn't have to look like a relic from the 40's!  I used a cotton yarn called Samp'a from Holland, that's pretty and easy to work with.  

Actually, the colors are more of a lime green and turquoise than these photos suggest.  My goal is to make a throw with beach colors to fit my Shabby Chic beach theme:

If you're interested in learning to crochet, or if you just want to brush up on your skills, I really recommend this wonderful book called The Complete Guide to Crochet http://tinyurl.com/2e6gfe7 which you can order from Amazon. It's got step-by-step instructions, illustrations, and tons of photographs!