The girl can work a crochet needle

Back in May, while the grands were here, Jenna developed a new skill, under the expert tutelage of her grandmother, Alice. On previous visits she had learned a very simple crochet stitch, and had done this simple stitch off and on over the past 2 years, making a few things the size of, oh, a drink coaster.

On this last visit, Grandma showed her how to do some sort of stitch that makes a pattern. When employed correctly, you get not just a bunch of yarn tied together, you get a bunch of yarn tied together with strategically placed holes and arranged symmetrically into a rough square.

I confess I know zero about how they did this, how the yarn stays together, how those holes magically appear. As far as I'm concerned, it's some sort of voodoo, or it may as well be because if I started twitching a crochet needle and yarn, I'd just end up with a big ol' knot the size of a Texas grapefruit.

Jenna, however, became quite masterful at this skill, and did it regularly during the visit with the grands. She's also continued to crochet regularly (we've since bought two more skeins of yarn, and she's halfway through the last of those) until what was once an afghan that barely covered her lap is now almost as big as she is and ready to cover the lap of, say, a full grown orangutan.

If orangutans valued lap blankets, that is.

She's not only good at this newly acquired skill, she's speedy. In about 3 hours, she started and completed the second white section you see and began the last multi-colored yarn (Variegated? Is that what that's called? I guess I need to do more crochet-related research before I blog. I could google it, but...meh).

Here's to Jenna. New Smith queen of yarn work!