Making and Memories

Apr 6

Written By

I was recently asked by Alexis on Instagram "What making means to you?" and this weekend I realized that making has completely taken over my world. When you wake up at dawn on Sunday to get extra time with your projects, it means you are obsessed, right? :) I invest a lot of time in making, but it seems so natural to me, that I've never given it much thought... But this question and my current projects got me thinking. I realized that the main reason for investing so much time in making is the gratitude for the opportunity to create.This blog is called "The Gift of Knitting" and it is my way to say thank you to this craft that brought so much joy in my life. I have my craft dreams, but my ultimate goal and dream would be to preserve this excitement about learning new things, about starting a new project and trying new fiber. So, making means to me first of all the opportunity to grow and to learn and this alone makes me happy.This weekend I started planning a new crochet project. Whenever I start crochet, I take this book - "1000 Crochet Patterns". This is my first craft book and it will be exactly 16 years old next month. It looks so beaten up, but it still travels everywhere with me wherever I go.It was a gift from my Granny when I was 10 or 11 years old and I remember how excited I was looking through all the patterns there and imagining how I would crochet all of them. I stopped crafting as a teenager and didn't come back to it until my university graduation. But I have so many memories when I look at it. When I was a child, the country was going through some big changes and it was financially challenging for so many families. I would never even imagine buying yarn for crafting at that time. We would spend hours with my Granny unraveling old sweaters to get scratchy and coarse yarn so I could work with it. I was even crocheting with plastic bags at that time! Can you imagine? My Granny didn't like to throw anything away, so she would keep all her shopping bags and we would cut them in narrow stripes and I would crochet plastic rugs with it. It was actually very handy for wet weather! This experience made me really appreciate all the fiber opportunities that I have right now!Well, back to my crochet project. I want to make a white crochet dress! It was awhile since my last crochet dress project (Wildflower Dress) and I decided it was time to challenge myself again. It will take awhile of course, but I am not rushing it, I will just enjoy the process.My Bamboo sweater is on the machine and slowly, but steadily growing. I might even finish it by next week, if I have enough time during the weekend.