This morning as I was getting ready for my day here at home (which will include inviting about 10 teens for a government lesson in about an hour), I had a random thought. How many times have I tried something, failed, and then picked it up years later and found that same thing very doable? When I was around 8 or 9 years old I tried playing the guitar, and quite frankly didn't really enjoy it like I thought I would. I was inspired by a friend's playing years later as a senior in high school to give it another try and shazam! Not only could I play this guitar, I enjoyed it and was actually able to convince some folks that it sounded good too! What made the difference? Well, several things. First of all, the guitar I later tried was not a toyish one that cost under $10 like my first one. My fingers were longer, and my ability to control them was also much more refined than when I was only 8 years old. My ears could now distinguish sound enough to properly tune a guitar, and I was now mature enough to spend the time needed to produce a good sound.
So what does all this have to do with crochet??? Just about everything! I have met many people over the years who quickly dismiss trying crochet again (or anything for that matter) simply because they tried it once, usually as a child, and failed. Perhaps they had inferior equipment to start, or maybe their teacher was not patient, or they were not ready to sit still for more than 3 minutes. I know that some people just aren't meant to crochet, and I totally understand and want to be the first to say, "That's alright! Be free to find what you enjoy and by all means enjoy!" But there are others who may be afraid of failing again, and I certainly get that too. If that is you, I want to encourage you to try it again! With the technology available today there are so many ways to learn things. Being a visual learner myself, I rejoice in being able to learn new skills from watching on-line videos instead of having to sit through a long class of lectures just to learn a simple skill. That's why I've made my crochet videos available for free both on this site and on Youtube. I don't always get something the first time either. I have a particularly hard time with learning new names when meeting people. I have to work really hard to memorize these. The beautiful thing about videos is that you can watch them over and over and over again until you do get it. Sure do wish I could do that at meetings and parties when I'm expected to remember all those new names!
Here's one quick story to help encourage you to step out and try something new, or revisit a failed attempt today: Many years ago when my first daughter turned one, I did what many mommies do and baked her her very first birthday cake. However,because I had put just one or two teaspoons too much water in the icing mix the top layer had slid off of the bottom layer by the morning of her birthday. At that point I knew I had to either hire out for next year's cake, or figure out what went wrong and try again. For her second birthday cake I ordered one from our local grocery store, carefully describing how I wanted it decorated. I wasn't very happy with what I got, even if the layers did stay together on this one. That was the beginning of our family's adventure in learning how to properly bake and decorate cakes. We learned a lot from pictures in books, and a lot more from watching free on-line videos. We made cakes with pigs, some that kind of looked like trains (at least to a 4 year old), a construction site, pick-up truck, and even one with cows dancing disco! Years later we were asked to make a wedding cake for a close friend so we took our first class on making flowers for this cake. All this to say that you can come a long way from very humble beginnings with a little bit of effort and perhaps some stubbornness mixed in!
