A stitch in time... requires patience
Hailing from an over-achieving family background has its own pitfalls. V hails from a family of women with extremely talented fingers. Be it their embroideries or tatting or crochets or knitted scarves, these women put others to shame. And ofcourse the world and her family expected her to have the same talent running through her!
V's grandmother now in her late 60's still makes it a point to keep herself busy by doing hand embroidery for V's dresses. Her biggest worry being her failing eyesight. V's mom in spite of working finds embroidery relaxing. Legend has it that, she started designing boutique-worthy sarees by the time she was in class 8 and this was much before times of Manmandirs and Varshidi's and in the small town of Trichy. So V, the lucky one grew up with designer wear, lovely salwars, amazing sarees and classy tops all designed and lovingly stitched by mom or grandmother.
And for the longest time, V's mom and grandmother patiently tried to nudge V into cross-stitch kits, and knitting needles. After the necessary SUPW (aka soup) classes in school she never bothered to touch a needle again in life. But she did pick up some sophisticated terms like knit, purl, double crochets and 5mm hooks which she used generously in conversations to make her sound like an extremely talented person just like her grandmother and mom. But the truth is V is more open to critiquing and suggesting changes to designs. Sitting at a spot, knit and stitch is not her game. The gene has somehow skipped her.
A few weeks ago, in an attempt to develop some skills and kill time she decided to crochet. Thinking back the decision sure was not an impulsive one like most of V's decisions. She thought long and hard about it before starting her Google search. Crocheting seemed like a good starting point just coz she remembered how to do the basic chain stitch while all she remembered about knitting was the two big needles and the funny "knit and purl" terms.
She found the best beginner crochet books (according to http://www.about.com/) were "Crocheting in plain English" and "Getting Started Crochet". After a quick search in the library catalog she had both books in hand. She spent a couple of days looking and admiring the books. Getting Started Crochet was clearly a better book to look at with tons of color pictures and thin just like picture books from childhood. And that was V's book of choice.
Then came the tough job of choosing a design, the simplest scarf design seemed to be a good starting point (and ofcourse a scarf is sure a good accessory to have for the cold winters! selfish she is). A trip to the neighborhood Joanns and V was the proud owner of lovely blue and purple yarn (she was already planning about buying the perfect sweater to go with the scarf she was yet to crochet) and a few crochet hooks.
The first day was a mess, her fingers were not moving the way she wanted them to and slowly she got a hang of it. And then the usual boredom stuck. For the ever-restless and impatient V, the scarf could not easily be done. Repeating the same stitches over and over every evening was getting to much of a routine and she hates anything routine. But this time around she was not planning to give up. She hung on there and finally after 4 weeks and numerous one-on-one talks of self-motivation with herself, the scarf is done.
Does she feel a pride? Not really. Probably because she knows it is not a masterpiece. But it is the first one so it is special. She is sure mom and grandmother are happy that this gal has a bit of patience to hang on and finish on a project she started. Not just happy but relieved too. They cannot imagine they brought up their gal with no patience and no interest in embroidery.
And it definitely is not going to be V's first and last crochet masterpiece. The new design is selected for the next one from V! She is hitting JoAnns again for new yarn and off we go again!
4 Comments:
Vini ..u are so down to earth... and I adore u taking out time for making something useful and creative..most importantly I liked the way you think about ur mom and grandma.. and appreciate your effort to make them happy.Keep the good work up and post pics of ur creations.. Nice hobby :)
good good good............
amma
Hey congrats.DO post a pic of the your masterpiece :) I am planning on crocheting something right after finishing my cake decorating classes...nevermind the crossstitch which is lying incomplete in the suitcase :)
Thanks everyone!
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