This past month has been a doozy.
I: landed a great new job at a local yarn and fabric shop, have been hunting for a second job related to my studies, survived the final round of midterms of my undergraduate career, immersed myself in several great books, and got rid of a lot of stuff. Life has been moving at a rapid clip lately, and I can barely keep up with the turning of the calendar pages. Luckily, I stumbled upon a new (to me) craft that has made me feel as if life has slowed down a bit, as if I’ve managed productivity amidst the chaos: crochet.
Last fall, Scott took a trip to Prince Edward Island with a friend, and my only request, as usual, was to please scout the yarn shops and see if there’s anything local and wonderful that I can’t find in Boston. He brought back several skeins of MacAusland’s Woolen Mills sport-weight yarns, in three of my favorite colors—acidic, mustardy yellow, deep cranberry, and gingersnap brown. I’ve dragged my feet for months about what to do about it; I felt like I had to make something really special. But I was constrained by the yardage–I only have about 1200 yards–and felt stumped as to what to knit. I caught a side-glance at the crochet hook that I keep in a jar with pens on my desk, and a light bulb went off.
I’ve been loving the process so far: completely mindless hooking that I can work on intermittently without a pattern, while in front of the television, any time. It isn’t a big deal to just pick it up and add a few double crochets while I wait for Scott to finish brushing his teeth, or while my soup comes to a boil, whereas I can sometimes be intimidated by picking up my knitting and feeling like I ‘have to’ finish a row. I feel liberated, and comforted by the sense of productivity it gives me during these busy times, when very little of my day is spent sitting at home.
I’m also thoroughly obsessed. I can’t stop thinking about crochet, have ‘faved’ a million crochet projects on Ravelry, and am plotting what’s next. I fear that my knitting needles are going to be lonely for a bit, at least until I’m done with the semester. And I expect that my pile of crocheted goods will grow!
crafting a better life. 