We can experience life lessons at any given time from anyone and anywhere. Did you know that you can learn life lessons from the art of crochet? In daily life, we all need inspiration, encouragement, and support. Often times, we sit and crochet with the intentions of creating, supporting, and nourishing ourselves and others with our creations.

We have great life lessons passed down to us from family members, friends, and strangers we meet in grocery stores, but we can also learn a great deal to help us each day in life through crochet. Here in this post, I’m only going to touch on three life lessons, but if you really pay attention to your craft, you’ll see there are many more life lessons to learn.

I’m going to give this list to you in the style of David Letterman for fun. Here goes…
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You’ve made those scarf and hat sets, everybody you know has one. I mean the postal worker looked cold didn’t he? The plethora of baby blankets, bonnets and booties for friends and family. Many afghans for gifts and your own home. Toys for little ones and phone cases for older ones. Aunt Mary, your best friend, partner and child all have an item of clothing. Those headbands and scarves went over really well at work and you made a few extra dollars. The snowflakes and decorations went over a treat at Christmas.
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I have been forced to clean out under our stairs. We have a termite inspection happening, well over due. They are suppose to be done every 12 months, it’s been 10 years. We have a 2 story house and the staircase is a “U” shape with a landing in the middle. Both levels are 9ft high so the space under the stairs, conveniently enclosed and hidden by a door, is nice and large. It use to be nice and neat. Spare house paint, tiles, vacuum cleaner, and cleaning products had a home there. There were lots of spare space, enough so that you could walk in there. However, we have managed over the past years to fill it full of stuff. The vacuum and cleaning products don’t even fit in there anymore.
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There are mothers and grandmothers who are affectionately and intently crocheting as we speak. They are trying out new hooks, yarns, patterns, and they are blessing us with their creations.

In addition, the crocheting mothers and grandmothers of the world are passing down this wonderful craft to us, whether directly or indirectly. They are giving us something to remember them by, even if we don’t recognize it at first.
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I was at out local Lincraft store (sells fabric, curtains, notions, yarns, etc.) to purchase some piping cord. Simple, one would think. I walked swiftly past the plethora of yarns that were on sale, I really wanted to stop but I was such a good girl. I picked up my box of piping cord and headed to the counter for my 3m (10 feet) to be cut off. Behind the counter there was one staff member with a HUGE tangle of yarn. Seems that when people rummage through the tables of clearance yarns they unwind some and the balls, get into a tangled mess, and the problem escalates from there.

Part of the mess

In the spirit of the new year I am going to make the best out of a situation that we haven’t really got any control over – hubby is as well.

My now 14 year old daughter has normal intelligence but what amounts to a processing problem (Severe Mixed Orthophonological Literacy Disability). This means that we have spent many years with assessments and help. All of these have been away from home and given our location always 1 – 2 hours from home, and we’ve been doing it 1 to 3 times a week for years.

What has this got to do with crochet? Well as it turns out it has lots to do with it this year. She has progressed and needs a new type of help and the help will be coming to us. That’s right, coming to our home, NO traveling any more. This will make it so much easier on everybody including my daughter who wont have to be extra stressed and tired from traveling. Back to crochet. The nice new specialist will be here Sunday’s for 3.5 hours. This means her and my daughter will need quiet for that time. This in turns means that my eldest, my hubby and I all need to be out of the way.
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A Guest Post by Linda Cee.

I first heard about freeform crochet when I was exclaiming over a beautiful white shawl, I knew it looked complicated and like nothing I had previously seen, so I asked the lady who made it, what sort of pattern she used and she laughed and told me that she just made it up as she went, then she said she would be happy to show me how to make a scrumble. Well my first reaction was, huh? But then she explained that a scrumble usually starts with one piece, a circle, a square or anything else you would want and then you just start crocheting! You could make up stitches, add different colors and textures and use a variety of hooks to achieve whatever you can possibly imagine, I got incredibly excited when I saw a blue and purple scarf she had made that had beads, feathers, and thin gold ribbons crocheted right into it. Some people compare freeform with sculpting because many freeformers make objects that are 2 or 3 dimensional and while some are very abstract, others are more realistic and recognizable, like a barn scene on a blanket for instance. Thanks to my current obsession with the craft, I found Renate Kirkpatrick’s Freeform Crochet~Knit~Fibre Designs which is a blog that is delightful to read and has a great introduction to freeform (with pictures!) I was very lucky to be able to interview Renate Kirkpatrick, who besides being a very gracious lady is also a teacher, fibre artist, and the author of three crochet books (with a fourth coming soon) and so without further ado here it is:

How did you get started crocheting and when did you get interested in freeform?

I made my first granny square in my mid-teens from an old tattered ‘How to crochet’ pamphlet that I found in an opportunity shop.

In my late twenties when the children were in bed asleep I crocheted granny square rugs (afghans) for fun, relaxation and gifts but I soon became bored with the repetition and began searching for more interesting, challenging patterns. I had never read a pattern before, let alone decipher what the heck all those odd abbreviations meant but, I persevered and, over the years, through trial and error, gained confidence and experience.

Freeform was introduced to me by a student while teaching at a local craft shop and has become my passion and creative joy.
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A Guest Post by Eve Tallafer-Sison.

“There’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.” I realized the truth in this saying while working on the pattern of the Rainbow Coaster by Rachel at Crochet Spot. At first glance, the attraction has been irresistibly strong because of the design. The color combination allows pairing the coaster with any placemat or tablecloth. Aside from the fact that the instructions are reader-friendly, making it is very easy to follow, crocheting a whole set of it added these precious gems into my treasury:

1. A stitch in time saves nine. Making a single mistake in counting in Round 1 spoils the whole plan. Like for this coaster, the 2 sc in each sc around starting in Round 2 provides the foundation of the hexagonal pattern. Making a mistake in the previous row affects the intended formation. This goes to say that every stitch in a row has a purpose and each single stitch counts in the entire project.
2. Practice makes perfect. An old saying, yes, but while working on each piece of the coaster set, I was able to prove it in the area of changing the color of yarn. While it is true that I learned to crochet at an early age, I worked on all my projects using only one color. I came to practice the art of changing threads recently from online literature and tutorials from YouTube. This coaster was a perfect exercise indeed for me to master the craft as the pattern required changing the color of yarn five times.
3. Rhythmic numeric chants lead to mastery. People usually repeat what they say in order to strike a point. Familiar with the idiom that states, “The key to mastery is frequent repetition?” I realized the same is true in crochet. Using repetitive numeric chants that create a rhythm helps one memorize instructions and master patterns more quickly. Let me show you how.

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It’s hot here in sunny Queensland Australia. The travel agents do advertise Queensland as the “Sunshine State”. More Specifically I am in Jimboomba – South East Queensland for any of you with some strange interest and a map.

When I am out in the heat, or anywhere in the house that is not air-conditioned then the whole idea of picking up hook and thread makes my skin prickle with anticipation of a heat rash. However, when I sneak into one of our air-conditioned areas then it’s back to my normal enthusiasm, possibly even more excited. Maybe because I am deprived in the rest of the environment that the air-conditioned hidey holes make crochet seem decadent.
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Rachel has written a compelling piece called 2012 New Year’s Crochet Resolutions and many of you have responded with enthusiasm – I am jealous of you all being able to make New Years resolutions. I wish I could.

I don’t cope well with New Year’s resolutions. Many people I know do really well with them and they get all motivated and have great success during the year. Not me, they never seem to quite work for me and then I get all upset with myself – way to much pressure.
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