Getting Back Into Crochet 10 Years Later

Getting Back Into Crochet 10 Years Later
Some background on me & a simple project for beginners

At the beginning of this year a lot was changing for me. In this whirlwind of change (which I always have trouble dealing with but especially when about 67% of it feels to be entirely outside of my control) I rediscovered a nearly finished panel of a crochet sweater I had started the year prior and never finished. Picking it up, and finding the hook I had stuck in the yarn ball I was working from (for safe-keeping) I lit a flame inside myself that I had forgotten about for much longer than just the past year.

As a child I had so much time. An abundance of time and an excess of energy, too. When I wasn’t running around outside, I was running around inside, and when I wasn’t doing that I was devouring stacks of books from the library every week, or cycling through various arts and crafts. Especially as I grew older and had only slightly less inclination to roll around in the dirt, I spent more time trying to improve upon my arts and crafts skills.

Especially around the end of elementary school in the time of gearing up for middle school, the thing I had read so many books about at this point and was sure to be as exciting and unforgettable as I had imagined, (it both was and wasn’t) I wanted to DIY everything, customize everything, decorate EVERYTHING. I glued magnets on the back of stickers I would put in my locker, knotted yarn around my no. 2 pencils, and then realized I needed to make my own pencil case to store them. 

It wasn’t too hard to teach myself crochet, and on one of many library trips I picked up a book from the used book book-sale that was full to the brim of all kinds of needlework stitches and patterns, including crochet. And then eventually I wanted to learn how to knit too.

That was more frustrating for the 11 year old me. But she did learn some of the basics. Cast on, knit, purl, cast off, I had some of the basics down but anything else beyond that was impossible at the time. 

At that same time, a lot was going to change for me. I would move from the only town I knew and remembered, away from all my friends and begin middle school somewhere completely new. This new town and new school would be completely unfamiliar and unfortunately, extremely unchallenging for the younger me that was curious to learn and never-endingly thirsty for knowledge. I would begin to spend a lot more of my time on the Internet and making new routines where my entertainment would come in the form of online games or Youtube videos, rather than the tactile skills I had just begun developing. And it would be both the most emotional lows and emotional highs I would experience at that point.

Returning to knitting and crocheting this year has come at the time I needed it most. The world itself is in a shifting time right now. Anxiety, depression, and ADHD are affecting a lot of people and it seems to be an issue of growing importance. I know these things have affected me greatly at various times in my life.

 And rediscovering the beauty of fiber arts, and the fun of it, has given me so much.

Sometimes, I want to occupy with my hands while I watch a good movie, and these days that means instead of scrolling on Instagram and only exacerbating my attention span issues, I’ll pick up a hook, pick up a simple project like a sweater with one repeating stitch or a blanket with one repeating row, and by the time the movie ends I’ll have satisfied the need to fidget and have made some progress on creating something. Sometimes, I want to challenge my brain and I’ll find a new complicated pattern that I have no knowledge on, and keep at it until I do. There will be multiple errors, starting and restarting, frustration and joy, and still at the end of it I will have made something new by myself and expanded my own skills and abilities. It’s like sudoku or crosswords (things which I’ve also started really enjoying lately) but even better because when I’ve solved the puzzle I’ll have a handmade gift to give someone I love, or a new piece of unique clothing to wear, or a soft place to put down my coffee mug.

While that forgotten sweater panel sparked my interest in crochet again, I understand why it may not be as suitable a project for beginners. So my recommendation this week, for anyone, beginner or otherwise, is to try making these circle coasters, with a fancy raised border.

I started by making flat circles, following this simple tutorial by Adore Crea Crochet on YouTube (@adorecrea on Instagram). And then, because it was looking a bit simple for my taste and I wanted to give it more texture, I decided to give it a reverse single crochet border, which isn’t as hard as it sounds, especially if you follow this tutorial, by Planet June on YouTube (@planetjune on Instagram).

Here's how mine came out!