Warning! Contains Crow-shay

Since I was so link happy yesterday, I thought I would do the work for you today, so here's lots of pics. (Like a good blogger, I did it the "right" way and didn't steal any bandwidth.)

True confession: For a while I have secretly been harboring the desire to crochet. Before becoming a full-time knitter, I used to crochet here and there. In college, I made a few doilies (just because) and somewhere in this house I have a paper bag full of granny squares worked in purple variegated acrylic (no idea what I was thinking). To be honest, I associated it with bad church fair goods, but recently I have been seeing more and more crochet patterns that I like. It all started with "Loviselund" from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's Collection Book Number 2 when I saw a shop sample at my LYS knitting group. If I'd had the money that day, I would have bought the yarn and started right away. But after the initial rush passed, I forgot about it until I got the book for Christmas. Now it's become one of those "one of these days" projects. Since then, I keep seeing more and more crochet that I like. Debbie Stoller's new Stitch'n Bitch book has some great simple stuff and has quickly risen to the top of my list (LOVE the title!!)

Other than edging on a sweater or the occasional flower to jazz up a hat, I haven't wielded a hook for fun in a long time. To be honest, I don't even like doing it. Not to whine, but it hurts my hands. I don't know if it's the kind of hurt caused by lack of use or over use, but it's not pleasant. Is it worth the pain for this?

I really love both of these sweaters, which are ranked "intermediate". I'm an over-confident knitter, but the last time I looked at a crochet chart, my eyes crossed and I could swear that drool was involved. The stuff looks like Braille!

I already have a few crochet resources, namely "So Simple Knits" and "The Crochet Answer Book" that I 'accidentally' acquired through Crafter's Choice. I'm wondering if they contain enough information to get me through something beyond over-confident beginner? Maybe I should start out with something simple, like a flower motif scarf. If Happy Hooker is anything like the other S'nB books, I'm it will be the most helpful.

Now that I'm done with my confession, here's the juicy bit: both of those crochet sweater patterns are free (!) patterns from the Lion Brand website!!! I know! Isn't it just shocking? I received their catalog in the mail today and was blown away by the quality of the patterns and the photo layout. I still dislike most of their yarns (Homescum phooey!), but this is pretty cool stuff! Maybe they got the hint that there is a huge knitting community out there where Fun Fur is the butt of many a joke. Maybe someone read "You Knit What". Whatever the reason, someone is paying attention, and now they have mine! If crochet doesn't turn you on, check out these patterns, also free, on their website:
But wait! There's more! The little cabled cutie (below) is one of the patterns available for sale.

So many projects, so little time....