Slip, Chain Two, Double Crochet

My wonderful roommate Hannah and her basket of yarn

"Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art." -e. e. cummings

These are the instructions that my roommate, Hannah, wrote on a yellow sticky note in a firm hand for me after our crochet lesson this evening: "Petal loop: [Slip, chain 2, double crochet (yarn over twice, catch yarn through loop, yarn over, pull through two loops ('til one loop left) double crochet 3 times, chain 2, slip into same] slip into next loop."

She ended with REPEAT.

I generally shy away from hands-on creativity making in terms of knitting, crocheting, or sewing. I think it's the idea of having to unravel a lot of something if you've made a mistake, and maybe even mess up a lot at the beginning. I'm not much of a Rubik's Cube person in that way, either.

Exhibit A.

I remember my grandmother sitting in her chair by the t.v. in her living room just before she died, determined to learn how to crochet. She brought us to Michael's, I think, for materials, and set my sister and I up with a package of different-sized crochet hooks, one for each of us. I started in on a scarf, whose width varied tremendously, and ended in light blue nothingness.

From this lovely website (I do not know the actual loveliness of the website) - 

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/hexagon-howto.html

And I forgot again, completely. When you don't do it very much, and weren't proficient to begin with, it is easy to forget hands-on skills. It seems to be a learning process that will take me a lot of years.

So when my roommate Hannah brought with her to our dorm the beautiful purple blanket she was making, the hair barrettes she was crocheting for her sister, and a lot of yarn, it felt a little like fate.

Rachel and her bright orange crocheted flower

I shy away from crocheting, but as she taught me, corrected my mistakes, helped me to unravel the parts I'd done wrong, and eventually instructed me on how to single loop, double loop, make a slip, and chain, I made something! Her hands-on instruction enabled me to attempt what, sitting alone with a set of instructions written in crochet short-hand, I could not otherwise do.

It was so peaceful to chain, slip, double crochet, until finally there was a bright orange flower in my hand and then in my hair! Who knew! (Okay, so many people know).

Crocheting is one of those things that requires supervision and a really helpful instructor, until a crochetee can be released on a ball of yarn with confidence that, up until the time when they will need to knot the ending, they know what they're doing. If not for the human transmission of this knowledge, they will probably be left chaining a very long... whoknowswhat'sit.

In the hair

Crocheting enables the creation of actual things - hats, scarves, blankets, birthday presents - from simple things; it is the roping together of materials, the continuity and pattern that matter. And that is a really beautiful thought to me.