I'm excited to guest post today at Whip-up here!
When Kathreen contacted me to write a guest post with a handmade theme for Whip-up, I did a lot of thinking about hand-crafting and my own blog. And I realized that although I make a lot of things, and write about some of them, I don't feel I can claim any real expertise in any of my crafts - I'm just doing what people in my little community are doing. But I do feel I'm getting more and more proficient at crocheting, a craft I've been enamored of for years now. One that somehow captures important things in my life.
In fact, my approach to crocheting seems connected in key ways with my blogging. I started crocheting at a very difficult time for me and my family, when I lost a baby, and our family made a long journey through more pregnancy loss, a premature baby and serious childhood hospitalization and disease. Gradually, as things improved, I started this blog, which rapidly became a way of looking through the new windows that were opening on my world. Interestingly, my crocheting also evolved during this time, as I found ways to improvise free-hand off of set patterns, using a growing range of materials - silks, hemps, wools and cottons - to create garments, jewelry, edgings, baskets and other things that sprouted in my imagination. Almost as if I were crocheting with my hands something of the growth and new groundedness I was writing about in my blog, and experiencing in my life.
Nowadays, thankfully, our family's path has become a lot smoother, and I only write about those difficult topics now and then. But through life's seasons I've continued crocheting, and this craft has become an important companion to me.
Hope you'll be able to have a look at my post at Whip-up today. Thank you - and sincere thanks to Kathreen for the chance to reflect on things that are important to me.
