stitching around a post

In a semi-recent post, I mentioned that I learned to crochet a number of years ago. I hadn’t actually crocheted a stitch since my daughter was born (over two years ago), but decided to haul it out when they offered wine at a recent craft-night get together among my mom friends. Something took hold of me that night (and it was not the 1.5 glasses I had); I’ve been re-obsessed ever since. One of the reasons I haven’t posted since November is that I decided to crochet all my Christmas presents this year. Yes, I was that person, the one that gave my two-year-old mittens on a coat string.

I’ve been pondering why I've gone so crochetzy, as my friend and crochavatar Dewi would say. Part of it is the satisfaction of seeing something grow to completion. I used to crochet a row or two between grading papers, because at least I knew the stitches were adding up to something. Not just something, but something tactile, something useful. Now that I’ve branched out into more complicated patterns (pattern hunting has become my new Internet time-waster), I feel I could crochet anything if I wanted to. If the factories go belly up tomorrow, I can make myself socks. Can it be such a stretch to crochet abstract concepts like love, postmodernism?

Aside from that, I feel similar to when I swapped out my first hard drive as a computer technician (many lifetimes ago now). I felt the exhilaration of being initiated into a boys’ club (I was the second female employee at the company of 20 or so), capable of exceeding my own perceived limitations. (Of course, I subsequently took my bicycle apart to see how it worked and ended up mangling the gears. I got a lecture from the [male] bike repairman on the merits of specialization.) I now have additional ways I can provide for my family (ill-fitting mittens!). I’ve been further inducted into mom-hood, in which I have learned so many previously impossible things: teaching undergraduates on three hours of sleep, entertaining a toddler for nearly a three-hour plane trip with finger puppets, becoming an expert on my child’s development. Give me a G-hook, and I’ll crochet this blog.

If you’re a crochet aficionado and interested, here are some of the other things I made the past month or so:

• mittens (because I made the ones above too big)
• cap with brim
• “beanie with brim” free download on www.ravelry.com (you need a free account to access it)

I’m currently making this hat with some swanky yarn that Dewi gave me as a present for graduating with the PhD. I loved the yarn, but I had no idea at the time how appropriate the gift was.