You'll Never Know Where Learning Something New May Take You

Back in October 2013, I went to Georgia to visit my girlfriend, Sherlyn. We were relaxing in her family room and she showed me some of the beautiful items she was in the process of knitting and crocheting. Very intricate patterns that were truly gorgeous. I told her that when I was a little girl, my mom had taught me how to crochet granny squares that could be sewn together to make an afghan. That was the extent of my crocheting ability. I didn't know how to read a pattern so I couldn't make anything more than an afghan. Sherlyn told me that I should try to learn how to read patterns. She explained some of the abbreviations used for the various stitches. When I returned home, I looked in one of my craft books and found a pattern for a stuffed giraffe. I decided to try to learn to read the pattern and do the stitches...this resulted in the making of Raffi, the giraffe. Fast forward to 2016 and Raffi the crocheted giraffe became a character in "Raffi and Friends - The Lunch Box Mystery. Never did I imagine teaching myself to read a crochet pattern would result in becoming a children's picture book author. Thanks for the encouragement Sherlyn!