50 Shades of Crochet

Lately I’ve been working on a square and have been enjoying every stitch, every moment.  So much so, it would not be an exaggeration to call it the highlight of each day.  Now how is it that crocheting can generate such heights of pleasure?

Maybe it’s because I’m using a high quality pure wool yarn in a warming winter palette.  It is soothing to look at and the wool feels earthy.   

It’s my first solid square worked in half treble crochet.   It creates a dense fabric which feels weighty and satisfying.  I don’t know if I can describe it as sensuous but it is so lovely to work with.  I now understand what people mean by ‘favourite yarn’.

I started making this square where outside I was bombarded with delicious food on every street corner, fabulous shopping, and the sway of excited crowds all around.  And within this setting I was also trying to concentrate on a job – I was hyped up on so many levels.  What a luxurious little respite it was to get away for some crochet!

Crocheting is creating, and therefore the opposite of consuming.  I don’t know about you, but consumption tends to make me feel sick – it is the natural result of gorging oneself.

And there is also electronic consumption.  (Waste a whole day on pinterest?  My guilty hand is raised!) 
  

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Crochet is so remote from the hi-tech realm that it must re-set some basic pleasure receptors.  Working with natural fibres, and the simplicity of hook and yarn, brings us back to some very common denominators.

In half treble crochet, the loops are released in a single movement, making the stitch simple and quick.  Perhaps this contributed to making my square so enjoyable to work on.  But  I find the action of crochet in any stitch very grounding.  You are forced to move at the real pace of production.  Crochet is a slow, manual craft that can belong to the category of slow movements that are popular these days.

In our busy modern world, homing in and focusing on the tiny loop and repetitive action brings us back to the internal quiet, a place to escape.  Let’s revel in its pleasures. 

 

Yarn

On taking up crochet, one thing in particular starts happening very quickly:  an obsession with yarn.

I’m not sure how it is for others – maybe some people start trawling patterns first, and then make a shopping list of what they need.  But I seem to be always on some driven, never-ending hunt for colours, textures, fibres.  In the early days, I crocheted some snowflakes in different colours and weights, which led to a natural conclusion of what was and wasn’t snowflakey.  I didn’t even bother blocking this one.

And this improvised shape turned out to be… a wonky swatch of sorts.

Then I had to keep finding more suitable yarns for snowflakes, some worked better than others.

Finer weights

...or wool

and alternative cold colours.

It wasn’t that I got bored with snowflakes, but the new crochet spark ignited the next phase very quickly.  I now wanted to crochet in my favourite fibres:  hemp, cotton.  Maybe try flax or ramie.

 

Of course wool presented an array of possibilities and then there were acrylics with their vibrant colours.

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Yarn could also be something I conjured myself, or re-purposed.

I love the idea of reclaimed yarn and yarn made from plastic bags – a great tutorial here.

With charity projects lining up, I got my hands on anything I could, often buying out stock in charity shops,  or finding forgotten balls of musty old yarn

And bringing home bags of frogged yarn (the old Grace Bros bag a find in itself!)

The next thing you know, you have yarn tumbling out of every crevice. 

  

The next job would be to think about storage and organisation.  So far, I am going to use old suitcases.  Here is the start of the cotton stash in a 60's beauty case.

These days I can completely relate to those who refer to ‘never having enough’ yarn.  And mind-boggled onlookers who say in disbelief “…but I thought you just bought some yarn.  Do you really need more?”  I know many of you out there know exactly what I’m talking about.