Isn't It Beautiful?

When I was a sophomore in college, I taught myself how to knit.  I loved scarves and I was inspired by my friend, Libby, who had spent the summer knitting a scarf for one of our good friends.  It was a hobby that I really enjoyed, but I felt really limited in it because I only knew how to knit one thing and didn't really have the resources to make anything really cool, like socks or a hat.  So, I set my sights on learning how to crochet.  I thought it would be so cool to make a blanket and crochet seemed to be the easiest way to go about it.

Well, years after I decided that I would expand my needle-work horizons, I finally learned how to crochet.  I went to the book store, bought myself an awesome book called The Happy Hooker (haha, love the name), and set to work with a crochet hook I stole from my mom a few years back and left-over yarn from the first scarf I ever knitted.  And after a lot of getting used to this strange new technique, I had my first little crochet "swatch." 

It looks funny, I know.  But I used probably four different kinds of crochet stitches in it because I wanted to try all of the basic stitches and see how they looked.  My favorite that I've learned so far is the half-double crochet stitch.  It creates a pleasant, roundish shape that I think would be very cute in a blanket.  Anyway, I've learned the basics and I'm ready to get started on my first project--a surprise gift for a friend. 

Here's one last picture of my lovely creation, in case the first one wasn't enough.