It takes little to get inspired. As I keep going through my favourite craft blogs as a daily ritual, I promise myself that someday I am going to make this or paint that. During one such inspired trip to the market many years ago, I bought boxes of mercerised cotton thread. And then packed them with heaps of other crafty stuff into boxes to carry along wherever our nomadic life took us. Now, I cannot sit doing nothing. I think about creating stuff all my waking hours. That I cannot get it done due to various reasons is another matter.
One day the auspicious moment arrived when suddenly all my reasons of not crafting vanished and I started out with this pattern from 'Attic24' in mind. A happy flower hanging, colourful and charming, crocheted to perfection. In India, we do not get the wide range of craft yarns that is available abroad. So, we make do with what is available to us. The yarn that I have stashed is mostly meant for sweaters and other warm stuff and it does not look good in a crocheted form because it becomes bulky. Also, mostly the yarn is a little 'hairy', even the yarns meant for babies are not completely smooth, and no, we do not get as many beautiful colours too. So, I looked towards my crochet thread collection and thought of using them. I had quite a few colours too, so the plan looked good. Only after a couple of rounds did I realise that thread and yarn are not named differently for no reason. They actually differ in many ways, the most obvious one being the gauge. :'(
And this teeny tiny flower was not going to be even visible on a wall if I went ahead with it anyway to complete the project. So what do smart people do? We double the thread to get a bigger gauge....but nopes, it is still way below the expected size. My 'happy flower' is going to look malnourished, underweight and unhappy. It was already past midnight and my inspiration was vanishing speedily. So, I gave up the hopes of making the 'Happy Flower' that night or anytime soon. But I completed the two tiny flowers anyway, because I wanted to see how we block crocheted work and how does it look, since I had read a lot about blocking and had never done it.
The two little flowers went to lie down on a towel and were soaked with water. Then...oh wait! We need to pin them, right? But there were no pins around. Uh oh, what are we gonna do?? Doesn't matter, we do it our own way, like a true blue MBA. I can put some weight on it. But then how will I see the magical transformation of crochet?? Haha... I will put a see through weight- a glass baking dish :D... see?
Ahh...I can rest in peace, now that I have seen everything that happens while crocheting and even the divine process of blocking. Or have I?
Meanwhile, the two flowers are happily tucked away with the above mentioned thread and yarn stash.
