I'm also a quilter. I love it. I compare it to something like woodworking - I love the feeling of taking raw materials and making them into a functional finished item. I haven't attempted making a bed-sized quilt yet, but I've done lots of small projects and baby quilts. I taught myself how to quilt, but sometimes wish I had taken a class or been able to learn from someone who quilted. I feel like my projects turn out good, but there are probably little tricks/adjustments I don't know about that would make them better. Just knowing how to sew is a good start toward making a quilt.

I find both crochet and quilting to be the type of thing you don't necessarily need a lot of time to do. You don't have to complete a project within any certain timeframe. There are several phases in the quilt-making process, and you can walk away during or after any phase and come back to it later - even weeks later. With a crochet project, I keep the project in a basket on the coffee table and when I pick it up on any given evening, I might only do a few rows, or I might work at it for 2 hours, whatever I feel like.

I encourage you to try any or all of these things, Catherine! I would say of the 3, crochet is probably the easiest to learn and a very low investment. A package of hooks in assorted sizes is less than $10 and a ball/skein of yarn to play with is all you need to get started. If you try it out and don't like it, you haven't wasted a lot of time or money.

Crochet can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. I learned how to do it and then I learned how to read pattern books when I wanted to more types of stitches.

Like you, I tried knitting, but I was not exactly a resounding success. It was a long time ago...mabe I should give it another try. I've never tried quilting, but when I get to a county fair I stare in awe at the gorgeous ones on display and think of the millions of stitches that went into making them.

The idea of NO DEADLINE is also very appealing, since writers always have deadlines!

Like Janice said, crochet can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. I prefer simple patterns where you repeat the same set of stitches row after row - it makes it easier to "cruise" through without having to pay a close attention to what you're doing.

My sister (the spinner) taught herself knitting, but could never get very fast at it. When I showed her how to crochet, her response was something like, "why have I been doing this the hard way this whole time?" She found that she could crochet much faster than she could knit.

The good thing about crocheting to is that it doesn't just have to be a blanket that u make... U can crocher around Hand Washers, Cut Hand towels in half and crocher so that u make it so they can hang of a hook etc...

Also if you are like me love to do Embrodiery (old fashion fancy work) on table cloths etc u can crocher around some of these...

Lee

Lee

If anyone wants to restart on knitting, I recently did some slippers with the new felting yarns. I'm getting fast at knitting, a sock a day, but even I was quite astonished as I finished one of the slippers after half an hour. I just did them like socks with a really short shaft. It looked enormous, you have to do them too large by one half, but it came out of the washing mashine with a perfect fit. Some liquid rubber for the soles, some glass beads for decoration and my sister was flabberghasted unwrapping her birthday present. I told her I did them myself, but she didn't believe me at first.
If you can't do socks, there's instructions on the net either to learn it or do it a different way...