Celebrating 30 Years of Warm up America!

I have crocheted 7x9 inch squares for this organization. It is very cool to think that my squares have been sewn together with the squares of others to form a blanket that is given to someone in need. I also think that there is something very special about knit or crocheted blankets. They are warm with the kindness of the crafter and of the yarn fiber.

Unravelling

     Sometimes I have crocheted hats or accessories that I later realize that I haven't used much and I don't think that I will use much so I unravel them and make something new. Sometimes I feel that life can be that way.  I keep trying to unravel and reshape outcomes. 

crazy for crochet

     Nothing like cool weather to coax my creative juices. I have been crocheting up a storm. I have taken a photo of my most recent creations- a capelet and 3 curly girl scarves crocheted by a curly haired girl.

itching to crochet

i've been crocheting up a storm lately. i recently made a poncho some hats and several scarves. some were gifts but it is still is making me wonder if its a sign. am i crocheting winter apparel because it is going to be a cold winter or am i just really bored?  hmm. i guess we will find out soon.  fall is here.  winter is not far off....

that seventies yarn

 as a young teenager i had learned how to crochet. i crocheted for a few years and then i stopped. and then i forgot how to crochet because it had been so long..... so a few years ago i took a crocheting class and i have been hooking my yarn ever since.

once , not long after i had resumed crocheting i was visiting my parents in the midwest. my mom told me that there was yarn at  my aunt's house and that my aunt does not crochet or knit so she gave me the yarn to use. when we opened the bag of yarn there were stacks of granny squares as well as yarn and a susan bates crochet hook. the yarn and crochet hook had belonged to my grandmother who used to crochet. the yarn was circa 1977.  so said the labels on the skeins of yarn. this project had been long abandoned by my grandmother who had passed away in 2001.
well i did the only thing that i could do. i proceeded to join the granny squares to create an afghan.
at first i left the afghan at my parents house. i thought that it might be nice to use it when i would be there.
a few years later i decided that it would be better to have it in my apartment. i recently brought the afghan to my apartment in brooklyn. i realized that my couch pillows did not match my new-old afghan so i covered them with granny squares to match.
as a kid i did not much like the retro color scheme of  granny squares. it looked so old fashioned. as an adult i love the kitchiness of the seventies style  afghan  that now covers my couch. it reminds me of my grandmother.

life is guided by a crochet hook

whenever i follow a crochet pattern i have never stitched before i always find it amazing that all of those stitches crocheted together create the garment they create. it just doesn't make sense. this is  is life. events seem so randomly connected but somehow you muddle thru and things can actually turn out well, but as in crocheting a new crochet pattern it doesn't always seem that it would.

art

art is not a handicraft. it is a transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.-tolstoy. or at least according to some poster i saw yesterday , these words are tolstoys! no matter. i believe its true. art is definitely self expression to the max. the more one has experienced the richer ones art . this applies to writing , painting, crochet , photography, jewelery making , etc. its not just a matter of slapping some words together or following a pattern. its a matter of transmitting one's being via creativity.

has anybody seen my hat?

the other day i was on the train and accidentally lost my hat. usually i take my hat off when i get on the train because its too darn warm and i put my hat in my backpack. on this particular day i was waayyyy too tired to do so. at some point i dropped my hat never to be seen again.
the thing that gets me is that whenever i notice that someone has dropped something on the train i tell them. in my case, no one did. perhaps no one noticed, perhaps someone noticed. ill never know. all i do know is that i lost my beloved crocheted hat that i made with my very own hands.
luckily i still had some red and white yarn sitting around, and whipped up a near identical hat.
why am i so upset? ill tell you why im so upset. i lost a hat i created and i wonder where it has gone. is someone else wearing it? did someone throw it out? did it totally get trampled? so many unanswered questions.
alas, i am glad i was able to crochet another red and white hat, but i really dug the old one and wish it was still in my possession!

kippot

growing up the coolest yamakas were the crocheted ones. black leather ones were cool too because they looked like chocolate. i even liked the black velvet ones because velour was really "in" when i was in school.
however.... there was one yamaka was a badge of embarrassment for the wearer ... the four cornored polyester black yamaka given out at weddings , bar-mitzvahs and shuls to those who normally dont wear one. whoever wore these shameful skullcaps were proclaiming they were not religious and that wearing a head covering of this sort was not an everyday occurrence . other yamakas seemed like a natural extention of the wearer. not so with these. i have a friend who would call these polyester monstrosities " chocolate chip" yamakas because they were often black and they were pointy when worn , not unlike a chocolate chip. hence the nickname.
one subset of jews that have made the chocolate chip yamaka a fashion statement are syrian jews. they are the only jews (besides reform jews) who regularly wear these in brooklyn. i dont get it. how do such otherwise fashion conscious jews wear the chocolate chip yamaka as such a bold fashion statement?

knit (or crochet) for peace

there's a book ive glanced at several times at barnes and noble called knitting for peace. it lists charitable organizations one can knit for. its includes knitting for soldiers. its a cute book. being more of a crocheter than a knitter,i did not read the whole book. i think that the concept is more true than one might expect. but not for the reasons the book knitting for peace had intended. i often crochet on the train. you would not believe how many people of all ethnic backgrounds and economic backgrounds start talking to you. they ask you about what you are making. how long you have been crocheting.they share anecdotes about their own projects. i genuinely enjoy chatting with diverse sorts of individuals. i find it enriches my life. once i was on the train and this woman who i thought was from india started chatting with me about my crochet project and telling me how her mother used to crochet lace. at some point during the conversation she turned to her right and started speaking to her friend who was wearing a burka about my project. then continued speaking to me. more women than men approach me while im crocheting , but sometimes men are intrigued and start chatting about it. the cutest observers are little kids who become mesmorized by the repetitive motion of my crochet hook . it brings people together in a quiet way. a non-political way. people who might never have reason to interact. i enjoy crocheting for the social interactions it creates, just as much as for the craft itself. and through these seemingly mundane social yarns a more peaceful world can be created.