I’m not ashamed of the fact that I crochet. It’s just that I didn’t want people to ask me questions about crocheting when I crocheted in public. Reading in public is a closed activity, for the most part, no one will feel free to talk about what you are reading, unless they have read the book, or want to read the book. Generally, if you are reading, no one will bother you. When you are crocheting in public, however, that is a different story. Someone may decide to come up and ask what are you knitting, ask “is that for me?” or chat about your project.
Now, I will crochet everywhere!
By everywhere I mean I will crochet:
at home,
at a park,
at a concert,
at the talk before at the opera,
at the pre-concert lecture at the symphony,
in the bed,
in a chair,
in a restaurant or in a bar.
I will crochet near – at my favorite coffee shop (Metropolis) or far – my most recent vacation in Costa Rica and even on a cruise with a group I met and still keep in touch with on social media.
I will crochet in my home, in a friend’s home, or in a relative’s home.
If I’m waiting, I’m crocheting because I can still be social.
People will inevitably ask what I’m working on, this may be the reason that other people don’t crochet or knit in public. In certain spaces, people are too polite or unobservant to ask. What are The answers come easier now that I have been crocheting longer. One place that I don’t crochet is public transportation – that is my reading time and it’s easier to read on a crowded bus or train than it is to try to gather up the yarn or fight for elbow space. When I would visit my grandmother in the nursing home or even visiting people in the hospital, I crochet because it gives us both something to do.
I don’t care anymore about people looking at me, because I can people watch and crochet and that’s just fine by me. Don’t worry about others, worry about yourself – crochet or knit in public and enjoy yourself. Taking your project “on the road” is exhilarating, unless it’s an afghan and too unwieldy to manage.
Happy crocheting – crochet where you want!
Two weeks ago it hit me, crochet project fatigue. I’m ready to make something larger. For the past decade or more I have been occupied with making afghans between 10-20 per year. When I decided to take a break this year for a crocheting sabbatical and only focus on technique, hats and scarves, I wanted to step back and not concentrate on large projects.
The almost instant gratification and satisfaction of a completed work, has challenged me to seek out new motifs at a much faster pace than I normally would when working on an afghan. The fast pace has given me an opportunity to increase my speed, and work out new finishing techniques. There are pros and cons to this sabbatical year… The biggest benefit will be the number of groups that will receive more donations. I’ve become more particular about the yarn I use for certain projects, my speed has increased and I have tried more yarns than before since the amount needed for a scarf isn’t as costly as the amount needed for an afghan.
Ten adult sized hat and scarf sets. That is part of the new goal.
A few weeks ago, I found a crochet-a-long for an afghan that piqued my interest because the center section would allow me to make a creative top down hat. I made a hat with a few modifications to the center section of the afghan because I didn’t want it to be too big. It was ok and on the smaller side, but the next one I made worked out beautifully, then I decided to make a third with a change in the pattern – same basic premise and it also turned out well.
Forty nine completed scarves as of today, July 18, 2019. My goal was to make and give away 50 scarves this year. I have 49 completed scarves. I don’t know how that happened. This has happened before where I just finish something and then begin a new project or two after putting the last one away and not thinking about my goal being met. I guess I just lost count.
