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Pull Up a Loop

Threading the Needle Challenge

By Jacqueline CassidaPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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My Mother's Afghan

“Maybe you could finish it and send it back to me.”

That was my introduction to the world of crochet. Well, that was my second introduction. When I was a pre-teen, my mother attempted to teach me how to do a chain, but I couldn’t get my fingers right and I was too impatient to practice. After my mom passed away, she’d left behind a few skeins of yarn and an afghan she had started. My dad couldn’t bear to donate it and he brought it to me all the way from California. Crocheting was so much a part of who she was, and she had made some fabulous things. I remember when she crocheted doilies that she’d lay over a bowl and starch, and they’d magically become Easter baskets. Afghans were her go-to though. She had to make them long enough, so Dad’s feet were covered – extra yarn required for a 6’ 1” man. She would have wapped me if I had ever said this out loud, as Filipino moms are apt to do, but my God I don’t know what possessed her to do a mustard yellow and brown one. Gross! Those colors influenced my younger brain to never crochet. What a weird association, right?

Here I was, the ambivalent recipient of a thing I didn’t know how to do. I peered into the bag, and I didn’t hate the colors- peach, sage, forest green, ivory. I am a crafty, quilty, artful sort- but this project made me nervous. Finishing something my mom started using a skill I didn’t have was a tremendous amount of pressure. All I could think about were those amazing doilies. That bag sat unopened for a while and was moved around to various places, while the back-burner department of my brain contemplated how to go about it. I did other projects involving fabric, cork, painting, crafting all the Pinterest things, and definitely stayed away from yarn.

One day, I came across the most interesting pattern for an afghan that spoke to my soul- every row was a different color and a different stitch. It was a beautiful chaos of jewel tones and I suddenly and absolutely needed to learn how to do this crochet thing. My mom’s afghan was kicked out of the back-burner department and queued up. I was gifted my first set of crochet hooks and purchased some skeins in different colors, figuring I’d go ahead and do that stripey afghan and learn ALL the stitches. Then and only then, would I feel ready to finish my mother’s afghan.

I couldn’t have chosen a more challenging way to learn crochet. Thankfully tutorials exist in multiple forms, and I managed to produce a beautifully wonky blanket. I discovered I don’t ever want to do Catherine wheels again, but I can handle a respectable number of other stitches. Since my mom’s afghan was all single crochet, I was ready. You could say I was over-achiever ready. Sure, my wonky blanket was wider on one end than the other, but I was sure that wouldn’t happen for this one.

I opened that bag my dad gave me, pulled out that afghan and the right size crochet hook. I readied my yarn bowl and wrapped that first color around my pinkie and index like a pro. I took a deep breath and worked in my first few stitches, relaxing into it the further I went. I could almost hear my mother next to me saying, “see, I told you it wasn’t that hard”. She’s right, and I love it. There’s a rhythm you find when you get into your groove. The single crochet is the most basic stitch. Insert the hook, yarn over, pull through for two loops on the hook. Yarn over, pull through and there it is. Do that again, count of ten, finding the Zen. Five more, but three in one loop this time. The chevron pattern was my mother’s favorite one to work- every afghan she made was a chevron. When I crochet now, I cannot imagine having waited so long to learn it. I gravitate to colors and blends that feel like ocean and skies at sunset. Exploring crochet beyond afghans has led me to entertaining projects- who knew you could make crocheted jellyfish? There is giddy excitement in finding new patterns to try and stock piling skeins of yarn in multiple colors. I connect with other crocheters who laugh together when we talk about the need to have too many projects in progress. I’ve joined the ranks of the many-sets-of-hooks club. There’s the fun crochet jargon like playing chicken with your yarn, frogging, and WIPs.

I wish sometimes that Mom and I could talk about those together, but I am grateful at least that I can send that afghan back to my dad, being long enough for him to tuck it under his chin and cover his toes.

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About the Creator

Jacqueline Cassida

Adventure is essential- if an opportunity to do something fun, maybe a little crazy, or totally different comes my way, I'm in.

Full moon hike Haleakala Crater, skydive, scuba with a shark, snorkel sunken ships, squid fishing? Heck yeah!

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