My name is Deborah, and I’m the gal behind LebyDee. I am very artistic, and my loves include crochet and knitting (obviously), drawing, God, photography, and various aspects of the medical sciences. I am working toward a career in the medical field, and craft whenever I am not involved in a school or church-related event.

 

My craft journey began abruptly:

In the December of 2014 (my sophomore year of college) I came home for winter break, and had no idea what to do with myself. I love to draw fantasy art (mainly dragons), but needed a change of pace. My mom happened to receive a basket of old Red Heart yarn from a co-worker, and it was sitting in my closet collecting dust for years after I tried and failed at knitting (we’ll get to that later). Well, I decided I wasn’t touching another pair of knitting needles with a ten-foot pole, but I had this vague recollection of “some other craft” that involved yarn and “some sort of hook”.

Yeah, talk about being uninformed. I literally Googled “yarn and hook” and came up with what we know as crochet. Not knowing any more than that, I drove to Walmart on the same day and somehow found my way to the yarn isle, an isle I never even knew existed before that moment. I looked at all the lovely-itchy-scratchy Red Heart yarn and picked the ugliest color available for not even my Lord knows why. I found the crochet hooks and managed to figure out which one I needed.

That was the easy part.

Home I went with my new yarn and hook, excited to start this new craft. I sat in front of my laptop and ran a YouTube (you heard me) search and clicked on the first video I saw.

And thus, the struggle train left the station. The yarn and hook were awkward in my hands and I had zero tension control. The scratchy yarn was unpleasant against my skin and I had to constantly stop and rewind the video because what was that maneuver again?

But I didn’t hate it. I was actually enjoying myself immensely, and after a week I found a comfortable way to tension my yarn, and I was making single-crochets like nobody’s business. One week later, I completed my very first scarf, comprised of double-crochets and even tassels (adventurous, I know!).

Isn’t that the most disgusting scarf you have ever seen? The body is made of Caron Simply Soft and the tassels are Red Heart Super Saver. I unknowingly added and removed stitches throughout the scarf, resulting in the skinny-bloated convoluted mess you see before you.

I love this scarf. It’s hideous of course, and I will never wear it in public or private settings, but it shows me how I started my craft journey, and how far I’ve come.

But another challenger approached…

Remember when I said I would never touch another pair of knitting needles again? Well, God had other ideas.

My college dorm has a shared laundry room, which doubles as the trash/recycle room. The semester after I learned to crochet, I ordered yarn online for the first time. I left the box in the recycle bin in the laundry room one day, only to come back two whole weeks later to find that someone thought it was perfect for the Sock Lost-and-Found. I found it amusing, but quickly moved on.

Fast-forward one whole year. I put a soup box in the recycle bin one night, only to return two days later and find that, again, someone took it out and used it as the new Sock Lost-and-Found box. Now that was a funny coincidence. But three weeks later my gel insoles arrived, and I put the (rather huge) box in the recycle area.

The next morning I found the ridiculously large box sitting in the Sock Lost-and-Found area, awkwardly replacing my soup box. Okay, this was getting ridiculous. I updated my mom on the Sock Box Chronicles, and she joked that maybe God was trying to tell me to start a sock ministry. Ha!

Wait… Wait a minute…

I looked up crochet sock patterns like crazy, and set to work. After I completed a few socks, I started to realize something: I didn’t like crocheted socks. I know a lot of people like making them and wearing them, but I (apparently) was not one of those people. This meant I had two choices: I either give up on sock-making, or learn…to…knit…

Sigh. Google and Ravelry became my best friends, and over the next few weeks I stumbled my way into the world of knitting. I didn’t do myself any favors by starting off with one of the most complicated items of clothing to make, using one of the smallest sizes of yarn. I tackled DPNS and splitty yarn, circular needles that were too short, and yarn chicken. I ended up creating various abominations using YouTube videos for references. Here are a few of them:

 

The purple…thing… is the product of my very first attempt. Sadly, I was using leftover sock yarn and lost to yarn chicken. The top left Mount-Kilimanjaro-looking “sock” came out that way because I didn’t understand the boundaries between the heel, leg, and foot. The bottom sock that’s a perfect fit for a Keebler elf is the result of my misunderstanding of the instructions.

But I saw signs of progress and, with another month of practice I learned how to make fitting, comfy socks (to see how far I’ve come, follow me on Instagram @lebydeecreations).

Now I am actively expanding my knowledge on the knitting and crochet world, and will hopefully inspire others to do the same. I thank God for this spirit of curiosity and the blessing of creativity, and I hope to grow these gifts during the years to come.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for reading!