I am wondering if certain abilities are hereditary. My mum’s mother (Nana) could knit, crochet, and sew with perfection. A lot of it would have been necessity when she had 7 kids and little income to the home. Even after all the kids left she still knitted and crocheted with intricate lace pouring down from her hands as she worked away quickly and effortlessly with perfection and only glancing down occasionally.

Then there’s my mum, the daughter of the above mentioned knitting, sewing, and crocheting genius. Mum’s a tailor by trade although very rarely sews now. She does a myriad of handcrafts with perfection, fine intricate work that amazes those who even do the same thing. This same woman with so much natural talent cannot crochet to save her life. It’s not for a lack of trying, she wants to. I have tried teaching her repeatedly over the years and she has even gone to several lessons as well, in case it was my inability to teach. How can this be? By the way, I have taught many others to crochet successfully.
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1) WEIRD KID
Well we are doing up miss 15-year-old’s room. It’s about time. She’s been in there since she was 3. She has done her part and pulled everything out, thrown broken old things away and given a huge amount to charity. She is currently sleeping in the spare bedroom. She has been ‘saving up’ for this moment. Her 15th birthday just passed and there was no present because she wanted her room done. She will be getting a new bed, side tables and mattress from us. Presents are never that big, however, we were going to do it anyway. She has used her birthday money from others to purchase a new cover for her bed and she is going to purchase, with her own money, a glass display cabinet for her precious things. She has been using the one I had when I was 11. I’ll make some curtains and she will keep her existing floor mat.

2) GREEN ROOM
Hubby is going to paint the walls, since I am a horrible painter. My daughter wants her walls green, screaming green. I suppose apple green is the best I can describe it. For some bizarre reason hubby said YES to this green wall request. Let’s just not even discuss what’s going through my head.
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Well, it’s finally happened. I am in a crochet slump. I have enough patterns both in books and stored on my computer to start a shop. I also have ample yarn and thread of all textures and materials. So what has happened? I don’t know.

I have my standard plethora of yet to be completed projects all around me, also a basket of yarn in front of the TV. I have looked through all my patterns and poked at all the yarn. I long for something to do but I just can’t get into it all. I just can’t get motivated. Admittedly we have had a recent passing in the family and I don’t think I am very normal since that’s happened, however crochet would be very therapeutic.
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The book I, and many others have been waiting for has been published! Several months have passed since 48 people, including myself, participated in the annual “Freeform Challenge”. The results are published in the book “Insipired! Music and Art in Fiber”.

I belong to a group of people who do various Freeform works of art, wall hangings, clothing, home décor or anything else you can think of. The group I am with is for discussions on crochet related Freeform only, however many practice other mediums as well.

For the last several years, the group has issued an annual Challenge. A theme is voted on and all are encouraged to participate – veteran or a newbie. There are contributions from all over the world. No language or skill barriers. The given theme is then interpreted as the persons feels inspired to do. Photos of their work are exhibited in an online gallery and published in book form.
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After the systematic pulling apart of the house for the termite inspection, of course some termites were discovered. The little invaders with an insatiable appetite have been taken to termite heaven and the rest of the house re-treated. The builders are now here to repair the damage, fortunately only a small repair in one corner of a room.

At lunch time I do enjoy my 45 minutes to sit down in the middle of the day to grab a bite to eat, make a cuppa and then crochet for a bit. I tried that yesterday and felt like the laziest person these men have ever encountered. The house does actually look like a bomb hit it and then got ransacked by home invaders. That’s because the wall that is now missing is in the downstairs study, which is the first room you come into when entering the house. Whilst it is only one wall we had to remove, the bookcase that was against the wall had to be put near the front door (where else is it going to go?). We have to paint this new wall, therefore the whole room will need to be painted as well. Yes, we could just pull the remaining desk and 6′ fish tank from the wall and paint around it however if we need to do this we are going to do it properly. So we pulled all the things out of the room and we will give the carpet a good shampoo while we are at it.
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There are several web based groups that hold friendship granny square exchanges. It is a process that is organized and moderated by some kind soul that is willing to put in heaps of hours so others can get joy out of crocheting.

Basically, you join one of these exchanges and you’re given an assigned partner and you are asked to send them a crocheted square of a certain size. The one I participated in was for 7 inch squares. You send one to your partner, let’s call her Mary, however Mary has been given a different partner and she sends one to him/her. Then another person sends one to you.
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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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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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