Let's Get Knotty!

       The past few weeks have been nice. I have started on the hats for my family members. I only have one surviving hat that was meant for my sister. Ellie took it upon herself to dump my coffee onto the white hat I was making for a sister-in-law. Oh well! I can make new ones, it's not the end of the world. I do truly love how the hats have turned out, though.          As this semester is ending, I have decided that I would love to continue to crochet. It has become a really big thing to me. Anytime I walk into a store now, I immediately walk to their arts and crafts section to look at yarn. You would be appalled at how much yarn I actually have. It's a problem in that sense. Although, I would say I have gained a great appreciation for my grandma, who chooses to crochet despite having arthritic hands. I now understand that wanting  to do something isn't always enough to make things happen. It takes a lot of work and effort to learn and...

      The holidays are coming! I have been trying to work more on Christmas gifts, since it seems to be sneaking up on us. I was also blessed with a beautiful new nephew this past week, so I had to celebrate somehow. This week, I crocheted two hats. The little green one is for my new nephew. The pink one was supposed to be for Ellie, but I made it way too big. It's going to be for my niece Riverlyn instead. I am still pretty proud of them, despite their faults.      All throughout my life, my grandma Marsha would be constantly crocheting. I remember being mesmerized as I watched her calmly crochet while she sat and talked with us. I have numerous crocheted items made by her. I have a tiny white crocheted dress that I wore when I was blessed as a baby. I was given so many beautiful Afghans made by her. They are some of my most prized possessions.      My grandma actually made my daughter's blessing dress, also. It came with the dress, boo...

 This week's progress has been the absolute hardest to document. I think I did more work this week than any other week, with less visible progress than any other week. I have been trying to crochet the arms and legs for the panda that I have been making, but I keep losing track on the rows and stitches. I have had to frog (undo some stitches) quite a bit, so I have been frustrated trying to get my final product done. I feel as though my occupation revolves around two axes. The first axis is the basis of doing my occupation for a class, and the second is the basis of doing my occupation because I enjoy it. I think that the first axis, doing my occupation for class, takes away all autonomy on my part. I have noticed that when I crochet just because I know I have to for class, I get more frustrated and I enjoy it a whole lot less. Everything feels forced when I remember I have to practice my occupation and I am short on time. There are other weeks in which I have plenty of free time, ...

 I have no new pictures of my cute little panda this week. I have been practicing the best I can, but for some reason, my magic circles aren't working correctly. I have restarted the arms of the panda probably four or five times now but I can't quite seem to get it right. I have replaced time actively crocheting with time watching YouTube about certain techniques to see if I can remedy the problem. I think this occupation probably falls on category F: Enjoyment (low boredom) on the scale presented in the article. (Westgate & Steidel, 2020) I feel as though I enjoy this occupation and almost never feel bored while participating in it. Sometimes, though, when I do lose attention on it, I tend to feel as though it is losing some of its value, so I try to hone in on what I am doing more. I think that boredom now pushes me to do things that I find worthwhile, whereas when I was younger, boredom would usually push me to get into trouble. Most of the time when I am bored now, I pu...