There's more to You Tube than cute kittens

In March 2015, my friend Gail, who is the perfect example of planning and preparing in advance, said “I’ve taken up crochet. I’ve started to make a Nativity Set in time for Christmas.”

Being the creative sort myself (as a former Brownie and Rainbow Guider, I think it comes naturally), she got my interest. On my next trip to WH Smith’s I browsed a variety of crochet magazines, and finally plumped for one with the free set of dubious yarn colours and a crochet hook - I had to take a gamble on whether or not the promised clear instructions would actually make sense. The gamble didn’t pay off.

I couldn’t make head or tail of what I was doing, so finally my £500+ spend on an iPad was justified; not only was I just playing Candy Crush and checking emails, I had now made friends with You Tube! Up until that time, I thought You Tube’s only purpose was to watch cute cats fall in bath tubs, daft kids pulling daft stunts on their push bikes, etc...

“How do I crochet a granny square…” and my world opened up! Once I’d realised that it helped by adding “UK” to the search I was away. Thank you to Bella Coco! Her easy to follow videos helped me transform those dodgy colours into a small granny blanket for a dolls pram.

I have no idea what i did with it, but I know that although it was a fairly pointless item, I knew that crochet was something that I could enjoy. My daughter set me my first challenge - bunting in the style of nappies in time for my step-daughter’s baby shower. I had two weeks to accomplish the task.


I did it!  There was no looking back after that!