Thursday, August 18, 2011

The Great Quest

Everyone needs a great quest, don't you think? Or several. One must have something to strive for.

My current great quest is Turning Yarn Into Stuff. Like most yarners, I have a Stash. It began several years ago when I was hospitalized for a severe bout of depression. While I could not, for obvious reasons, have knitting needles, I could have a crochet hook, and during the times when I wasn't in group therapy or some inane activity or another, I would sit in the dayroom and crochet. My stuff was kept by the nurses, and when I wanted it I just went to the nurses' desk to ask for it. They inventoried what was in it, let me take it to the dayroom (never to my room), and when it was returned they had to check the contents again. At first it was nothing but one skein of yarn and a crochet hook. Then a fellow hospital mate told me she had a lot of yarn that she never used any more, so the next time she went home on a weekend pass, she brought back a HUGE garbage bag full of yarn. I hadn't crocheted with any regularity in years at that time, so I was attempting to reacquaint myself with the art. The project that I started in that hospital ward was a granny square. I was not allowed scissors (again, for obvious reasons), so instead of getting up and going to the nurses' desk and having one of them to cut the yarn every time I finished a square, the square just got bigger, and bigger, and bigger. I wound up with a good sized blanket that was nothing but a giant granny square.

I've fine-tuned my skills since then. I've made many baby blankets, a few scrunchies, a couple of booties, some doll clothes...the list is endless. My favorite pattern is one that belonged to my husband's grandmother. It came to me when she suddenly couldn't remember how to turn it at the end of a row; I was asked to reverse-engineer it. His grandmother is not in the advanced stages of alzheimers, unable to crochet even a basic chain, but I have used the pattern a lot. It's the only one I use for baby gifts; it's my way of honoring her.

My skills have been honed. My stash is ever growing. My mother-in-law helped me do some cleaning and organizing recently and asked me, do you know how much yarn you have? Yes, yes I do. Perhaps it should have been a clue that I started my first big yarn stash while I was in a psychiatric hospital. I know my husband thinks so.

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