In 2012 my youngest was hospitalized for a total of 33 days with pneumonia and complications. I was a wreck. To maintain sanity I asked my family for yarn and sat in the PICU crocheting. I learned how to make star blankets and made two (I don’t have pictures of the first).
I still find crocheting a calming activity.
I may have a worm obsession. I went at making these crochet worry worms with a fervor, using up all my scrap yarn and getting more acrylic yarn. Yes, I bought acrylic yarn. For someone who spins and adores natural fibers, it was a telling sign of a distraction gone rogue. The main advantage of acrylic, other than the low cost, is that the yarn is less likely to cause allergic reactions. There are many people allergic to animal hair or plant fibers, so making a solace gift that could cause allergies feels… icky.
My biggest downfall was the Mary Maxim yarn that was red, white, and green with silver sparkles. Maybe I should find a local addictive crochet support group.
One of my friends enjoys painting and has quite a flair for it. She had painted rocks at the chorus craft fair and I just had to buy the one that looked like Wing Ding! And then take a picture of Wing Ding with her effigy.
Once again, I have a hard time making many things all the same. What happens if I change stitches, or hook size, or yarn type, or starting stitches, or… well you can see where my mind goes. I did a little experiment with the worry worms and stitch type. I used three different stitches: single crochet, half double crochet, and double crochet.
As expected, the length and width changed with the different stitch types. What I didn’t expect was the neat chain edge on the half double crochet, and it has a nice full squishiness to it. I don’t care for the double crochet worm, it came out limp and floppy, which I didn’t expect from a larger stitch.
Scrolling I saw reference to a Chaunacops fish, which is a deep ocean variety of sea toad that can be a lurid red. One of the commenters said it looked like their grandma crocheted it. Hm. Could I crochet one?
I’m in hat making mode, so rather than make a stuffed animal, I decorated a red beanie with fins, tail, and mouth.
I didn’t do a pattern, this just was a fun little experiment. I do like how well a single crochet ribbing does for making fins.
It amuses me greatly.
Critters and Craft 