Five years of crocheting to order: what nobody told me
In April 2020 I could not crochet a single chain stitch.
I say it plainly because people sometimes assume this runs in the family — a grandmother who knitted, a childhood among wool. Nope: it comes from a lockdown, a tutorial watched in fits and starts, and the urgent need to do something with my hands that was not scrolling. The first week I produced a thing that was, in theory, a square. In theory.
Five years later I live surrounded by yarn (forty-three balls — I counted them the other day for inventory and half regretted it) and what started as a spark is now my work corner, my story and my way of being in the world. A few things I learned that nobody told me:
The hard part is not the crochet. Crochet can be learned. The hard part is pricing your hours without guilt, saying “I can’t make that deadline” when you can’t, and not giving your work away through fear-discounts. That is in no pattern book.
Orders are conversations. The best moment is not finishing a piece: it is the message three days later, with a photo of a small child asleep hugging the toy. I keep a folder on my phone with those photos. On crooked days, I open it.
Undoing is not failing. I have unravelled entire half-finished blankets because the colour was not right. It stings for a while, then you crochet better. If there is a life lesson in that, help yourself; I am only talking about blankets.
The body keeps score. Right wrist, neck, and that prawn-like posture you get after three hours with a hook. These days I take breaks, stretch, and have an alarm called “stand up, Babou”. I obey it about 60% of the time.
The learning never ends. Last year I got stuck on a colourwork technique called tapestry crochet that kept me hooked and cross at the same time for two weeks. Still like that now, with something new every few months. Thank goodness.
I do not know where all this will be in another five years. I do know the box of yarn scraps I will “definitely use someday” will keep growing, because that is the law of the maker’s life.
Thank you for these five years. Truly. And if you have ever thought about ordering something and never quite dared, this is the moment to open the next five.