Skip to main content

Crochet Can Be Dangerous!

If you've never thought of crochet as anything but a "gentle" art, beware of crochet overload! It could cause your head to explode. Let me explain.....Last week I was in the thread aisle at JoAnn looking for the required #3 size thread for our bead tapestry crochet lesson. I noticed a lady picking out the same thread I needed and the quantities of colors were limited, so I politely hung there to let her pick what she wanted, slightly worried that there would be nothing left for me. Because #3 thread is not commonly used, I decided to ask her if she was getting supplies for the Crochet Guild meeting. She looked at me strangely as if she was trying to absorb what I was talking about. It turns out that English is the second language of this nice polish lady in her seventies. When she absorbed the activities at a guild meeting that I described, she seemed interested. I gave her our guild card and drew a small map so she could find her way to the meeting. She actually lives in the next village but didn't seem to know where the library is located.

So yesterday was meeting day and I glanced up from my seat and there she was, signing in as a guest. I waved to her to come and sit by me. I don't think she actualy remembered me. She was probably a bit anxious having found her way across town and not knowing what to expect. Remember, too, she is in her seventies!

During Show & Tell she was not shy at all about showing her doilies made in #3 cotton. Some one asked her how long she had been crocheting and she answered, "Oh, two or three days." That got a laugh and I hope it didn't embarrass her that I explained the question was "When did you start to crochet?" Five years ago was her answer. During our break, I noiced she went around and looked at everyone's work, that is after the crowd that formed around her large doily samples thinned out! Next our bead-crochet lesson began and she was really baffled by how that all takes place. She watched me work out the pattern very carefully and asked many questions.Since she was a guest, she didn't come prepared with supplies. I showed her close up how to do the bead stitch and answered her many questions. I felt bad that she sat there with nothing to crochet so I told her she didn't have to stay until the end if she didn't want to. By now, though, she was gettig the idea of bead crochet and said he granddaughterwold love to have one of the bracelets we were making. She was actually a little giddy now thinking of the prospect of making that bracelet.

I was beginning to get a little concerned; considering her age, she had had a lot of stimulus in the last couple of hours. She sat through our business meeting and heard our plans for our chapter's 4th Annual Crochet Buffet. ""What's that?" she asked me. "I think of buffet as food." She heard that two of our members would be teaching at the Folk and Fiberart Fest  Where's that?"She head the discussion about our bringing in a nationally known teacher for a special workshop and saw 35 crocheters show their latest FO's during Show & Tell and she saw the many great books that were brought to the meeting today from our Chaper Library. What if her head exloded from all she saw and the cro-excitement it created? What if? I innocently invited her to a meeting because I believe that ALL crocheters should know the joys of crochet guild. I didn't mean any harm!

Comments

Vaughnde said…
ROFL! I think she did very well with the language barrier. I think you've opened up new worlds to her. I actually would LOVE to be part of something like that myself but being deaf, easily lost in a crowd and in a small retirement town....I doubt thats gonna happen anytime soon :)
MsBusyfingers said…
I liked your story about your little old Polish lady's cro- awakening. I have to say though - that "in her seventies" doesn't really necessarily mean "old" and I wouldn't worry about her. You probably added years to her life - motivation being: there is way too much new crochet to discover, can't die yet!
I loved this delightful story. Although I am 1/2 her age, I often feel as if my head is about to explode with crochet too - I've got pattern designs floating around in there, WIPs, great crochet books I want to read, yarn I want to try, patterns I'm drooling over, festivals I want to attend....yikes, is crochet consuming my life?!?

Also wanted to thank you so much for founding CGOA...I recently became a proud member and I can't wait for Chain Links in July!!!!
CrochetQueen said…
Thank you all for your thoughtful and witty posts here on my blog. I appreciate your taking the time to write Please consider becoming a fan!

Popular posts from this blog

Craft vs. Fine Art: How is Crochet Blurring the Lines

I was awakening to the world of crochet in 1972,a time of immense artistic expression through fiber arts; and crochet was not the “ugly stepchild” at the time. In fact, Ferne Cone Gellar who I admire as a successful fiber artist said in “Knitting: The Stepchild of the Fiber Arts?” ( Fibercraft Newsletter 1978), “Has knitting been slighted among the areas of the fiber arts? The very word ‘knitting’ evokes images of the little old lady in tennis shoes. Over the years, I’ve learned to ignore all those jokes.” Cone Gellar went on to publish Crazy Crocheting in 1981 and encouraged her readers to create more than bedspreads, providing ideas such as “things to play with or to display on a shelf or hang on a wall.” A photo of single crochet from bread wrappers served as inspiration.  In 1972 in her book, Creating Art from Fibers & Fabrics , Dona Meilach wrote: “Why are fibers and fabrics becoming increasingly appealing to artists? Most artists agree

Wartime Crochet With Attitude, Part I

Wednesday, October 30, 2013 Karen Ballard and I have a mutual love of free form crochet. We met for the first time in a class taught by Prudence Mapstone of Australia at the Chain Link Crochet Conference 2011. I admire Karen's vast knowledge of needle work history and am grateful for her willingness to share with us as my guest blogger this week. Karen wearing a World War II-era knitting hat with stubby needles on top Karen's Heritage Heart,  with flowers symbolic of her heritage, is currently on tour with Prudence Mapstone's traveling "Hearts & Flowers Exhibition" in Australia and New Zealand   World War 1 Attitudes About Crochet by Karen Ballard In 2008, I coined that term, "Workbasket Campaigns" to describe the organized efforts during World War I (WWI) and World War II (WWII) coordinated through the American Red Cross {ARC} and the Navy League to create needle crafted items.  These items were mostly knitted but also sewn, qu

What is Free Form Crochet?

Monday, January 6, 2014 This topic came about from the title of my article recently in Fiber Art Now magazine.  "Crochet As Art: A Conversation with 5 Free-Form Crochet Artists." Yes, the 5 artists I wrote about, all of which are in  my book  The Fine Art of Crochet , are free-thinking when it comes to their creativity. They are free-wheeling with the hook and use unique fibers in many cases. Once you read the article, tell me what  you think? Are these artists doing free-form crochet? In order to define free-form crochet, we must look way, way back to it's origins: Irish crochet. A brief history of crochet, including the Irish method, written by Ruthie Marks is available through The Crochet Guild of America . Unfortunately, there are no images on the site. On her blog, Nancy Nehring has a beautiful montage of Irish Crochet in reference to a class she taught in 2013 at Lacis . I wrote an article in Old Time Crochet Magazine (Spring 1998), "History of Irish Croc