Day Two: 29th March. Skill + 1UP
Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?
This is an easy one for me. I learned to crochet this year. I learned to knit over Thanksgiving 2009, and I was pretty much a simple knitter (square things in garter stitch) until this summer. In summer 2010, I learned to make a diamond with my garter stitching, and my roommate and I made tons of them for a baby blanket. Then, in September 2010, I FINALLY learned to purl. WHOA!
But the most important thing I learned? Crochet. I had wanted to learn how to crochet from the beginning, but my roommate taught me to knit because that's what she knew, and it was free.
My Grandma Deeter was a champion crocheter. She crocheted my coming home from the hospital sweater, booties, and blanket (I asked my mom why there was no pants...she said I wore a diaper, and that was all the answer I got). She made hundreds of afghans over the years for my parents and I, and her other two kids & their families. Rumor has it that before she lost her ability to crochet b/c of arthritis, and before she died, she made a baby blanket for each of her grandchildren's first born. When I learned this for the first time, damn straight I cried. Honestly, some of my most cherished items in life come from my Grandma Deeter.
I spent summers and holidays at my my Grandma and Grandpa Deeter's house as a kid. She tried teaching me to crochet a couple of times, but all I had to show for my effort was a super long chain. Let me tell you, I kept those chains of yarn for YEARS.
So, sometime in November I found out that Allyson from The Sweatshop of Love was teaching a free crochet workshop at one of the libraries really close to me. I JUMPED at the chance to go, got myself out of bed EARLY on a Saturday morning, and headed to the library. It was wonderful. Allyson is so unbelievably talented and PATIENT. She was able to juggle a big table full of first time crocheters, and I came out of the class feeling like it had been a one on one session. AND she emailed extremely detailed notes out to us to boot!
In the class that day, I started making a black beanie for backstage. Let me tell you: it gets COLD backstage at a lot of theatres, and I didn't own a black hat (we wear all black) to keep me warm. So making a black hat was at the VERY TOP of my yarn-to-do-list. Priority number one. And today? Today I got to wear it for the first time for its INTENDED PURPOSE. I mean, yes, I wore it all winter outside in the snow. But today? Today I got to wear it to keep my head warm backstage in the freezing dark.
Now, I consider myself an avid crocheter. Sometime later this year, I plan to try making my first sweater. And last week, I opened up an Etsy Shop -- deeter's yarnings.
To relate this post to today? I spent my down time backstage (which, let me tell you during tech [and ESPECIALLY during THIS tech], there's a lot of it) today crocheting up some cute little Easter Bunnies & Chickies for both my shop and for a personal order from my Aunt/Godmother for her granddaughters.
