Crochet

 

If you don't know how to crochet, learn.  MaryJane has excellent instructions in her Stitching Room book.  

She does have excellent instructions, but I found I needed to watch a video rather than compare my work to stills to reassure myself I was doing it correctly.  If you are similarly wired, Bella Coco has you covered and her series is blocked out in short videos for easy digestion if you are leading a frequently interrupted lifestyle.  

If you are learning how to crochet, start with a simple straight scarf.  If  you already know how to crochet, pick a simple project...   There is a 3 hour minimum time investment.

I am a beginner, yes, but we live in a place that barely has sweater weather and my utilitarian aesthetic would not let me embark on a scarf.  I have since read Edward Gorey's Doubtful Guest and could be persuaded to make a scarf for my newly-shod-in-Converse Young Cultivator as a very obscure allusion.  

Instead, I settled for a pumpkin with plans to send it along to a friend as seasonal sistermail.  This is pretty much entirely "half double crochet through the back loop only" undertaking and gave me an excuse to buy ombre yarn which was fun to watch color change as the rows slowly spooled out.  An experienced crocheter(?) crochetier? would probably be able to knock this out in under 3 hours but I was following along with Bella Coco at half speed, and "frogging" frequently (undoing your work, because you rip it-rip it-rip it).  In fact, the abandoned first draft is stuffed into the center of this project in lieu of polyfil because the yarn got so snagged I was unable to completely undo it by ripping.  I eventually landed on the strategy of counting every row I finished (en espanol) to determine I had the requisite veinte stitches.     

Even with a stuffing stimulus, my orange tube was looking pretty flat.  I consulted with my Young Cultivator who in turn consulted with her 40 stuffies but returned with bad news.  No one was ready to donate their body to stitching and crafting.  Not even the Happy Meal toys which were well past their expected lifespan.  A giant husband backrest pillow, "Doggy" was willing to consider a more modest transfusion but I was not sure I would be able to stitch her up in a way that would hasten a speedy recovery rather than a slow deflationary decline.  So I corralled all the flower fabric scraps YC had been using to make her "hospital gown" fashion line for the stuffies (lots of ill-fitting smocks secured with staples that still exposed teddy bear derriers) and stuffed the pumpkin with that as a sort of reverse nod to Cinderella and her fairy godmother's outfits.  This was a satisfying way to punctuate the lulls of a few days and after a bit of practice, I felt competent enough to take it on the road and be seen in public working on it while YC learned gymnastics and piano.