Remember when my best attempt at crochet looked something like this?

And then something clicked and I made this…

…and this.

I’m getting the hang of this crochet thing, I think. And I like it. It’s a welcome alternative to the endless scarf project in my sidebar, a project that I cannot blog about because I hope to submit the design somewhere for publication.

And so I started another crochet project.

It’s the Pieced Throw from Simple Crochet by Erika Knight, adapted for four colors instead of just three. It’s pretty mindless—just miles of half double crochet—but really, really fast to work up.

I like this crochet thing.

Some points to ponder…

Google searches for “knitting” are clearly related to seasonal changes in the Northern Hemisphere. And yet, the #1 and #3 regions for “knitting” searches are New Zealand and Australia.

It also seems that knitting popularity peaked a few years ago and now we’re on a downward trend.

You see a similar pattern for crochet, but the peaks and troughs are less dramatic. Chile, Argentina, Peru, and Australia are #1, #3, #5, and #7 in the region list.

Knitting blogs, or at least Google searches for, seem to have hit critical mass some time in 2005. The #2 language is Turkish.

Enter Ravelry…

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

Pattern: Omusubi Obake, from Amigurumi de Yuyuri (Leisurely Amigurumi)
Hook: D 3.0mm
Yarn: Pittsburgh, #9143; Plymouth Encore, #1232 and #217; scraps

An omusubi is a rice ball wrapped with a piece of nori, or dried seaweed; an obake is a kind of ghost or spirit. This little rice ball ghostie appeared last night and started haunting our kitchen.

He seemed pretty at home in our box of curry mixes.

And of course stopped to pay respects to the package of nori.

But eventually he decided to haunt the box of Taiwanese pineapple cakes. I think I will too; I’m hungry!