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In my family. it's said you either have the "crafting gene" or you don't. My mom, a quilter, has it in spades. She is a quilt designer, teacher and blogger, with several published patterns, and this is all in her time off at her job as the library clerk at an elementary school. Other members of my family do sewing, flower arranging, carpentry, and have worked as bakers, hairdressers and home builders, all of which are creative and produce gorgeous results. Basically, our family was one of many out there who did DIY way before it was cool.
Some of our family doesn't have it, but I was also blessed with the "crafting gene," and my craft of choice (other than writing) has always been needlework. When I was younger, I did embroidery, crochet, and cross stitch- I got more into cross stitch than anything and spent hours and hours and years and years making projects, most of which I don't have any more because they were given as gifts. I stopped during my 20s because I had an insurance data entry job that required tons of repetitive typing and doing that all day and cross stitch at night was too much. And then I got into other things: music shows, art shows, graduate school, moving to Seattle, just trying to make it, doing better in my career, shopping, fashion, nail polish, more shopping, having no money, spending all my time on the internet, watching dramas unfold in various nail groups, and being broke.
But recently I got interested in crochet again. Chunky crochet and knit stuff is super trendy. I need to do something with my hands and without a screen. I do love the internet and I will never break up with it. You'll never see me hair flipping out of Facebook. I'm not that deep, so you won't see me going on a ten-day silent retreat any time soon. I still always have my nails done and I still like to shop (I've been wearing and buying a lot of Gwynnie Bee stuff lately). I'm sure I will never read and review as many books as I want to - maybe grad school was my peak with literature and maybe that's OK (although I do want to write one soon). I'm still going to occasionally read dramas in nail groups because that shit is funny. And I am going to keep selling Chloe + Isabel until they get sick of me. But I definitely needed something to fill my time and get that crafting gene back in gear, and crochet is doing it for me.
So I've been crocheting. I joined Ravelry - friend me there! I've been stashing yarn (hopefully not too much) and dreaming of projects I want to do this year. I do document my projects on Ravelry, gifts or no, so if you are in my family or someday expecting a gift from me, probably don't check out my Ravelry right before your birthday. (MOM!)
I need to find a good Facebook group for crochet - the ones I have found so far have been too general or too .... rural? for my tastes. I'm looking for a modern or contemporary one without a lot of prayer circles. I did learn a few things from the crochet groups I have come across so far- it's surprising how many crocheters there are out there making camo stuff for babies. A lot of women have rooms full of yarn. Some crochet group admins are more or less illiterate despite being native English speakers.
There were some positives, too. Women who live in rural areas, have rooms full of acrylic yarn and make camo stuff for babies are also surprisingly open to having men in their groups and not being gender-specific about things (way better than the girls in the nail groups with the men who come through there). They are mostly kind and supportive of one another. In fact, in those groups I don't quite fit in because I am more sarcastic and eye-rolling than the typical woman in there.
I also met an excellent Finnish woman who wandered into an American group. Her work and her demeanor stood out to me and I like international friends. She's the only Facebook friend I've made so far through crochet, and I am glad I have met her! But I need to find more of "my type of crochet" people on the internet, and ideally on Facebook, so if you have any recommendations for pages or groups, please let me know.
In my family. it's said you either have the "crafting gene" or you don't. My mom, a quilter, has it in spades. She is a quilt designer, teacher and blogger, with several published patterns, and this is all in her time off at her job as the library clerk at an elementary school. Other members of my family do sewing, flower arranging, carpentry, and have worked as bakers, hairdressers and home builders, all of which are creative and produce gorgeous results. Basically, our family was one of many out there who did DIY way before it was cool.
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| Scattered Thoughts designed by Jean Kritenbrink photo by Jean Kritenbrink |
Some of our family doesn't have it, but I was also blessed with the "crafting gene," and my craft of choice (other than writing) has always been needlework. When I was younger, I did embroidery, crochet, and cross stitch- I got more into cross stitch than anything and spent hours and hours and years and years making projects, most of which I don't have any more because they were given as gifts. I stopped during my 20s because I had an insurance data entry job that required tons of repetitive typing and doing that all day and cross stitch at night was too much. And then I got into other things: music shows, art shows, graduate school, moving to Seattle, just trying to make it, doing better in my career, shopping, fashion, nail polish, more shopping, having no money, spending all my time on the internet, watching dramas unfold in various nail groups, and being broke.
But recently I got interested in crochet again. Chunky crochet and knit stuff is super trendy. I need to do something with my hands and without a screen. I do love the internet and I will never break up with it. You'll never see me hair flipping out of Facebook. I'm not that deep, so you won't see me going on a ten-day silent retreat any time soon. I still always have my nails done and I still like to shop (I've been wearing and buying a lot of Gwynnie Bee stuff lately). I'm sure I will never read and review as many books as I want to - maybe grad school was my peak with literature and maybe that's OK (although I do want to write one soon). I'm still going to occasionally read dramas in nail groups because that shit is funny. And I am going to keep selling Chloe + Isabel until they get sick of me. But I definitely needed something to fill my time and get that crafting gene back in gear, and crochet is doing it for me.
So I've been crocheting. I joined Ravelry - friend me there! I've been stashing yarn (hopefully not too much) and dreaming of projects I want to do this year. I do document my projects on Ravelry, gifts or no, so if you are in my family or someday expecting a gift from me, probably don't check out my Ravelry right before your birthday. (MOM!)
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| Me on Ravelry |
There were some positives, too. Women who live in rural areas, have rooms full of acrylic yarn and make camo stuff for babies are also surprisingly open to having men in their groups and not being gender-specific about things (way better than the girls in the nail groups with the men who come through there). They are mostly kind and supportive of one another. In fact, in those groups I don't quite fit in because I am more sarcastic and eye-rolling than the typical woman in there.
I also met an excellent Finnish woman who wandered into an American group. Her work and her demeanor stood out to me and I like international friends. She's the only Facebook friend I've made so far through crochet, and I am glad I have met her! But I need to find more of "my type of crochet" people on the internet, and ideally on Facebook, so if you have any recommendations for pages or groups, please let me know.
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| How my camera gallery on my phone looks now. |