Tried It Tuesday: Crocheting

It was a beautiful 65 today and yet we are expecting ice, snow, and single digit temps by Friday!!!  What a week of weather!

Well enough about the weather!  It's Tuesday and I'm linking up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday!

So about 6 years ago I had a friend in college who knitted and crocheted.  She decided to get a group together to knit and crochet hats and scarves for the local children's shelter at Christmas.  I had never done either but decided I would give it a try.  She taught me the basic single and double crochet stitches and I got to work on some scarves.  That first Christmas I only made a few items, but I decided that I really liked it.  I got online and found new (free) patterns and youtube videos to help me when I didn't understand a new stitch.

Me and said friend in college!

Then I took on some bigger projects including making a blanket for a friend's baby!  I've now made 8 blankets for friends and I'm working on my 9th!  This is the current pattern I'm working on!

Fast forward to Spring of 2012.  My church hosts a Christmas Eve dinner and coat drive each year for the past four years.  A group of women decided to start knitting hats and scarves to add to our donation pile for this event.  I joined the group and went against the grain and CROCHETED!  They always give me a hard time about it!  I love the women I crochet with (I'm the youngest one there by about 15 years)! We have great laughs when we meet once a month. Our goal is donate at least one item a month per person.  Last meeting one lady had 30 hats completed from last month!  You can guess most of these ladies are retired! Ha! Last night we dedicated all of the items that have been made this year!  We collected over 400 items!  I worked on a lot more items at the beginning of the year, when I was home on maternity leave. These are some of the scarves I made.

These are some of the hats that were made over the past year!

 This is what the Christmas season is really about, giving to those in need!

So that's my "tried it" for today.  What are you trying?