“Continental’ Crocheting in a Blizzard

Well, Boston got hit with another big snow storm yesterday, so I again find myself with some time off work and itching to make it productive.  Last week, I decided to devote my snow day to practicing my continental style knitting.  This week, I decided, why not focus on “continental”crochet?  Never heard of continental crochet?  That’s because no one calls it that – everyone just calls it normal crochet.  I crochet in a very abnormal style – holding the yarn in my right hand and throwing it over the hook, just like you do in English style knitting.  No one ever really taught me how to crochet, I sort of just figured it out and it made sense to me at the time to hold the yarn like I do when I knit. I form the stitches correctly this way, so it’s not like I’m doing it “wrong” – I’m just doing it the slowest possible way.  I need to learn how crochet “correctly”, with the yarn in my left hand.  So I practiced yesterday, ALL DAY.

Look, here I am doing it!
(Yes, that is a number 12 on my thumb…  it is my Super Bowl manicure…  go Pats!)
It was so awkward for me to hold the yarn this way, but I managed to do it and I made a tiny little amigurumi snowman wholly working in this style.  I split the yarn a lot more often than I do crocheting with the yarn in my right hand and I feel like my tension is really uneven.  I definitely need practice, but I think this is an important skill to learn, so I’m going to keep at it!