Feeling A Little Knotty?

Hello, crochet!

Would you believe that, every time you’ve made a slipknot, or braided someone’s hair or some string, you’ve technically been crocheting? No, no, I haven’t lost it. Hear me out. Take a close look at a crochet chain-stitch. Go on, I’ll wait while you Google it.

Found an image you like? Good, now take a really close look at the strand of yarn, the way it loops in and out. Look familiar? Aside from the fact that just about every crocheted piece starts with a slip knot (I bet you thought I threw that in there out of the blue, didn’t you?), and is made up of only one strand, a chain-stitch is, at its very core, little more than a glorified braid. Perhaps that’s why crocheting never ceases to retain popularity among all age ranges – no matter the age, there’s always a memory of sitting playing with string or hair that tends to resurface when you take a close look at the most basic stitch.

True, crocheting does get more complicated, and fast. It takes one project to go from ‘pretty braid’ to ‘oh my gosh, what have I done?’ levels of interwoven witchcraft, and that’s not even addressing the algebra that is a crochet pattern. Take one I’m working on at the moment, for example: “1 dc in next 14 chs, 3 dc in the last ch, ch-1”. All I wanted was to know how to make a triangle. That’s not even a full row. Once you understand the stitches and the codes that go along with them, it makes perfect sense (she says wistfully while looking at the squiggle that vaguely resembles a triangle), but that doesn’t change the fact that crochet is both a soothing, calming pastime and a nightmare from hell that can drive you batty in seconds.

If you’re still not driven away, hang around and see what you can pick up about this time-honored craft, and who knows, maybe you’ll find you too enjoy it. Either way, we’ll try not to make the info too boring. We’d much rather keep you in stitches.

I’ll see myself out…