Well, here I am with my very first blog; how exciting! Thought I would begin with "why now?".
It actually all started with a cancer diagnosis just before Easter 2019. After following up with my GP for a flu that never seemed to go away, I found out that I had a type of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma known as SMZL - or marginal zone splenic lymphoma. I went through a very challenging 6 months of chemo and received the news that every cancer patient wants to hear, "You're in full remission", in December of that year.
During my monthly treatments, it would take me a few days to recover from the nausea and then maybe a week to feel 'normal' again. I spent some time at home recuperating before returning to work. I was a 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off kind of person for a while lol! This meant that I had a lot of free time on my hands, but very little energy to do much.
This is where I re-discovered my love of crochet.
The very first time I picked up a hook was in a craft class I had elected to do in Grade 4. My mum was one of several mums who were volunteering to teach a particular craft skill, of which hers was knitting. Not happy with the time it took to grow a knitting project, I tried crochet. I loved how quickly progress was made on my very first granny square blanket. I still have it to this day! Mind you, I did not finish it until I was about 16!! It sat in a bag in my room until one winter clean out. I pulled it out again and after a refresher with my grandmother, who was an inspiring crocheter of doilies and granny square blankets, started to crochet again and finished it in time to have a lap blanket to put in my very first car..
I made very few projects in the years that followed. I lived overseas for many years and didn't take up the craft again until after I returned home to Australia in 2004. For some reason, I associated crochet with winter. Probably because all I could do was crochet granny square blankets, which kept my legs warm as I was working on them, during the colder months.
It took my cancer diagnosis for me to really sink my teeth into crochet again.
I have made so many things in the last 18 months or so, that I have forgotten what my actual first project was, after my long hiatus of crocheting nothing. (Or maybe it is just chemo brain?) I think I started with crocheting a jacket for the family fur-baby - this was after seeing a fellow dog-walker with a gorgeous knitted (or maybe crocheted) dog jacket on their pooch and suffering dog jacket envy! So, I made one for my terrier x, Kobi, from a free pattern I searched online, . I moved on to crocheting some lampshade covers, after not finding the right colour of lamp shade for my room decor. It just grew from there and I haven't stopped crocheting since.
Now, after having made so many new and wonderfully challenging projects, being inspired by so many other talented crocheters, I am ready to start creating some of my own designs.
Watch this space...
