Goddessing: A Goddess / Pagan Blog

p. 9, How to Crochet, Pauline Turner.
Collins & Brown Limited. 2001.
Genre: Nonfiction, How-to.

In 1970 I crocheted a poncho.

In 2004, a week after National Fraud Day (November 2), my friend S.B. bought crochet hooks and some cotton yarns on our way to choir, and sitting in her van we made "I Won't Give Up The Fight" friendship-type bracelets of crochet chains.

Last month, on the day I cut my hair, out of the blue came an image, a feeling, a desire, an idea: to make a cap for my shorn head. Over the next few days, my beloved (a non-crocheting knitter) helped me figure out that it was crochet I wanted, not knitting, and that what I had in mind was something like an Afghan skull cap or a Rasta cap.

Next, she bought me a booklet of easy crochet hat patterns, and when that was too advanced for me, she bought an interactive CD-ROM -- "Crochet Made Easy" -- which taught me, right here at this computer, how to hold hook and yarn, how to make a foundation chain and build rows of single and double crochet on top of it, how to turn, count, and a few other fundamentals. Just enough to set my creative wheels in gear and my fingers in motion.

I've been crocheting with a passion since then. I've made lots of mistakes, a little progress, seven hats, one scarf, four Tarot bags, and the beginnings of a blanket. These have all been created without the benefit of pattern ... I just couldn't wait to get started.

Miraculously, crocheting doesn't seem to be aggravating my fibro-body, at least not so far.

Pauline Turner's How to Crochet was recommended by a local fiber arts expert as the best book available for learning crochet from A to Z. I love this book. It's well written, well organized, well illustrated. I'm more of a learn-by-doing than a learn-from-reading kind of gal, but having this book at hand is advancing my crochet knowledge and skills and leading me on.

This whole process has inspired reflection on the nature of Craft, both the specific craft of magic (or magick) and more generally all and any spiritual craft or practice. Here are a few things that have bubbled up:

1. Discipline is required, focus.


2. Bliss is the goal, not perfection.


3. Learning patterns and methodologies from experts is helpful. You benefit from their accumulated knowledge and wisdom, both in terms of what to pay attention to, and what to avoid. A good teacher will give you options, not demand rigid adherence to her theories and practices, and she'll understand that she's helping you find your way by teaching you hers.


4. Be willing to begin again, and begin again, and begin again. Practice, practice, practice.


5. Success, serendipity, failure, flaw: all are teachers, allies.


6. Your heart, your mind, desire, a creative spirit, a sense of adventure: these are your greatest tools.


7. Be open to inspiration.


8. Create beauty; share it.

Permalink posted by Sage -- 8:40 AM.

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