I first learned to crochet when I was young, about seven or eight. My grandma taught me when I was visiting her for the weekend. I was beyond excited. I only learned how to chain and single crochet. But with that knowledge I made a bright blue rectangle. With a grin that went from ear to ear, I proudly showed my grandma what I made. She said she had an idea for my bright blue rectangle. She took it, fastened it off, and stitched the corners together on each end. She picked up my teddy bear put it on it. When I realized we just made a sweater for my bear, the world of possibilities was opened to me. I started thinking of all the clothes I could make for my dolls and stuffed animals. I was wide eyed and wanted to make all the things. I wish I could say that I just continued on crocheting from that point. But unfortunately that enthusiasm waned.

Happily, that same enthusiasm struck again a few years later when I was shopping with my family. We stopped at a bookstore and I came across a crochet book on granny squares. It was entitled Woman’s Day Prizewinning Granny Squares. The book had a gorgeous crocheted blanket on the cover, it drew me in like a moth to a flame. I flipped through it. The book was filled with colorful pictures and beautiful stitches that I had no idea how to do. Remember, at this point I only knew how to chain and single crochet. So needless to say, that book was much too advanced for me. But I couldn’t put it down, I had to get it. And over the next many days, I looked through that book over and over. I tried to read it, but it looked like a foreign language. I felt overwhelmed. My other grandma was visiting at this time and she also crocheted. She made intricate lacy items using crochet thread. The time and patience that took was amazing. I asked her to help explain the pattern to me. This was before YouTube my friends. So if you wanted to learn how to do something, you would bug anyone that knew anything about it and try to learn all you could from them. After my grandma went back home, I would bug my mom. She knew some crochet basics. Yep, it takes a village people. But through all this, I learned the double crochet as well as how to make a granny square. I was so pleased with my accomplishment. I was that wide eyed girl again. Oh, the things I could make with this newfound knowledge. I decided I was going to make a blanket. So I started making granny square after granny square. They piled up, and put them in a project bag. And then again, as before the enthusiasm waned. And this time it was gone for a bit.

After I got married, and was pregnant with my first child. I was overcome with the desire to make something for my son. I kept my Woman’s Day Prizewinning Granny Squares book all those years. I pulled it off the shelf and flipped through it. There was an adorable baby blanket pattern that I wanted to make. But unfortunately over the years I forgot how to do those stitches I so proudly learned. So I decided to go to the grocery store, where they had a small craft isle. There I found some baby yarn, a set of hooks, and a little paper booklet of basic crochet stitches. I gathered my bounty and headed home. I poured over that little paper booklet. In fact, that booklet became my best friend. Using it as a glossary, along side a pattern I could decipher what the pattern was saying. It was exciting, I felt unstoppable. I also kind of felt like a spy deciphering a secret message. I am sure there are pregnant, crocheting spies somewhere. That booklet though, retaught me the stitches that I once knew as well as so many more new interesting stitches. I eagerly started working on the blanket. But after a few weeks, my son apparently couldn’t wait to see his new blanket and decided to make his debut early. The blanket got put aside as I was learning how to be a mom. And life just kind of took over.

I would have loved to say that the third time was the charm, but clearly that wasn’t the case for me. It was the fourth time. Jump ahead, to me being pregnant with my third child. It must be some form of nesting, as I had that same desire to make something for my children again. Lucky enough for me, by this time the internet was teeming with all sorts of crochet goodness. I drank it all in. I made baby items at first, like hats, bonnets, booties, and blankets. I loved creating something out of a ball of yarn. It felt so magical turning string into something useful. And the sense of satisfaction I got from my creations was so gratifying and purposeful. Crochet has given me so much. It filled a void I never even knew existed within me.