For Alisa, YouTube has been a great teacher for her and her rediscovery of crochet and falling in love with the craft.
Who Taught You to Crochet?
I am the anomaly in my family. No one within two generations of me is remotely creative (they have their own talents :), thus, I had to find another method. As a 9 year old, my mom got a video to teach crocheting at the library. I loved it! However, my little hands could not quite do it. My tension was just too tight and all my pieces ended up oddly-shaped I kept trying but it just didn’t work out. I decided to stop, force myself to forget how to do it, and relearn it when I was older.
Fast forward 2 years, and I discovered the magical YouTube. I found a video that taught me how to crochet and fell in love all over again.
How Long Have You Been Crocheting?
I have technically been crocheting for 5 years, but I only could make crooked pieces for the first two years. At age eleven, I relearned crocheting and have been continuing that hobby ever since.
I began by watching YouTube videos of patterns and projects and filling my mind with every new idea I could discover. Then, I was ready to create. I had always enjoyed creating things and crocheting was no exception! I have only followed two patterns in my life, a pillow and a bag. Other than that, I have created all my other projects.
Title: Baby Blanket – I have been making baby blankets for a couple years with the SOFTEST yarn EVER (Bernat Pipsqueak Yarn). I made this set for some friends who are about to have twins.
Why is Crochet More than Just a Hobby to You?
I take time out of every day to crochet. Not as a method of procrastination or because I have so many projects I need to finish, but because it calms me. As a MAJOR introvert, I always need time to sit and think and reflect on the day and crocheting gives me an excellent opportunity to do so. I find myself to be so much less stressed when I take at least 30 minutes every day to crochet.
Along with being a great stress relief, I also just LOVE to crochet. It makes me so super happy to just sit down and create and that is why I love crocheting so much.
~Alisa
First is my connection to my family I already mentioned. But there is more to it. I’m an artist, so anything creative is important and meaningful to me – I feel that it is my duty to put beautiful things into the world. In particular, the ability to create clothing and useful items from something so simple as a hook and a string seems miraculous and marvelous to me. I also suspect that the history of crochet is tied up with the history of making fishing nets and so I feel a sense of history when I do it, a grander connection to the whole family of humanity. It is also deeply meditative, and so I suspect that my continued rise in life happiness is connected to the act of crochet.