----------------------------------------
Wheels
September 14th, 2017
----------------------------------------
My wife crochets.
That statement deserves its own paragraph. When we got together she had
been a print designer for over twenty years at a non-profit. It was
repetitive, thankless work that didn't pay enough and garnered very little
respect. She was burt out badly.
In fact, it wasn't even her first burn-out. About a decade earlier she was
so fed up with her design life that she sold her house and used the money
she made to go on a road trip around the country trying interesting
things. Her favorite was volunteering at a dig site in Montana. Eventually
the money ran out and she had to return home and go back to the grind.
When she moved in with me she said she wanted to try something new. She
thought wood working would be great, but had no experience. I make
a pretty decent salary, so we decided to be a single income household.
I provide and she would try a new path.
After a brief pause--we had a baby--she enrolled at the community college
in the wood working program. Somewhere in the middle of that first
semester, her mom came to stay with us to help out with the kid while she
was at school. Her mom is a fantastic woman as well, with a number of
hobbies. One of those is crochet. With her mom as a guide and her new
interest in creative construction, she decided to give it a go.
The wood working was frustrating for her. Hours and days and weeks on
every little piece with intricate levels of detail still results in
amateur quality work. It's a difficult skill and takes years of practice
to develop. I think she knew this in her head, but in her heart she was
hoping she'd have some natural affinity that would let her breeze through
it. Meanwhile, the yarn work at home was quite different. She struggled
through the first couple hats, and went on a long streak of Amigurumi
(small, stuffed yarn creatures). Before you could blink she was making
blankets and hand warmers, infinity scarves and all sorts of neat things.
Wood working is on pause now. She's taking a little time to consider
whether she wants to invest the time or not. The yarn has continued to
grow at an accelerated rate. Presents from us for friends and family are
all yarn creations now. She's crocheting a blanket for a college friend's
wedding next weekend. She makes baby blankets for kids celebrating their
first birthday. We bring a box full of assorted creations with us to
family Thanksgiving where they can all pick out what they want from the
pile themselves and we say "Merry Early Christmas". We have a room
upstairs that is overflowing with skeins of yarn. It's pretty scary.
I try my best to be supportive of her activities. One of the most
important ways I do that is to not take up her hobbies as my own. I don't
want to create competition for her. Instead, I try to take up supportive,
related hobbies. When she took on wood working, I learned how to use
Japanese water stones to sharpen all her tools for her. Anyone need
a sword sharpened? I'm your man. With crochet, my options were smaller.
Today my Ashford Traditional, single-drive spinning wheel arrived. I've
got a set of bobbins and a lazy kate on the way, as well as a bunch of
roving and rolag that I'll be transforming into sexy, sexy yarn in the
near future. I hope I don't suck at it. I have hopes of Etsy and craft
fairs.
