Today was my first crochet lesson!
As part of one of the love stories I received I had a revelation last week (see revelation post) as one of the stories mentioned that they wished their Nana had taught them how to crochet and that they didn’t used to like the crocheted dresses she used to make them but wished they still had them now. As I read this story I felt the overwhelming urge to learn how to crochet, but not just learn from a book but to be taught by someone else….a person like a grandparent who I had a real respect for. Hilary Hollingworth who I am lucky enough to work with is a stitcher by trade. She created beautiful pieces of embroidered, Beaded, darned, stitched, knitted and crocheted works of art (I’ve probably missed out many of her other skills here). She very kindly offered to show me the ropes and so today, armed with two hooks and two balls of cotton she taught me the basic stitches and use of the hook! It was actually a lot harder than I expected. My goal is to crochet a garment like the story suggested that would have been created. I think this may be a piece that takes a while to learn the ins and outs of, but I like the fact that I am transmitting the craft and element of the lost love story in this way. At the moment my dish cloth is only a few chains long, but as we chatted it seemed to get easier and I got used to anchoring and tensioning the cotton at the same time. I wanted to do more this evening, but as part of this process so far I have become quite tense and so have been to a meditation class this week and also Pilates to try and relieve myself of some of the built up emotion.
Research day tomorrow and so I am aiming to nail my presentation and then do a bit more prep for Tuesday. Fingers crossed I can do a bit of stitching too!
A Matter of Artefact 