the wisdom of the owl-lets

I haven't told you yet, have I, that I'm officially a Brown Owl.
This is super-duper exciting, fantabulous. Membership to this crafty, fun and lovely group is pretty limited. Started by the ever crafty mother owl herself, Pip, from Meet Me at Mikes.
My first meeting was yesterday. A full three hours of crafting and chatting and feeling at ease with all these women who I didn't previously know (apart from their blogs).Thank you so much to Rebecca and Bec for teaching me the basics of crochet. Even though you tried really hard, I haven't quite mastered the art of the granny square. Sylve + I both ended up making flowery curvy waving circle things - very pretty, but not granny squares.
One thing I like about crochet is that it's really easy to unravel, and redo. You don't feel so terrible sitting there pulling it apart (not tedious like using a quick-un pick when you sew a seam wrong). Well, last night I sat on the couch and did a fair bit of unravelling and re-working. I decided that there are only so many times I can attempt something in one night, so I decided to make some round coasters instead of granny squares. (I did hear many girls talking yesterday, saying that grannies are hard to make, so I don't feel totally useless). I made this coaster pattern up, as I went along. And happily can say that I replicated it (almost) for the second one I made. I'm thinking they could cute stitched into a blanket or even a purse. The ideas are flowing.Sam has requested me to make him a beanie. For this Winter. Can anyone lead to an easy pattern for making a male-style beanie. He wants it to have a brim, but I think that's out of the question.
My yarn is a beautiful organic Australian wool, spun in New Zealand, and dyed with low-impact, metal-free dyes. It's so soft and easy to use. Doesn't have a lot of extra fluff. And the colours are really pretty. I'm currently using the grapefruit moon, which is a natural white. Sylve + I got ours from Tangled Yarns (via a story in MAP magazine - Sylve went to school with the girl who drew that cover pic!).