Why I crochet

…is ravelling the opposite of unravelling?

Crocheting reentered my life through a project to make a coral reef with the community in Abu Dhabi, UAE. While I sit and crochet, pleasurably mixing shades of wool together, I’m amazed by how meditative crocheting is, I have the feeling I’m making sense with each hook, loop and twist of the yarn.

Many words can be contradictory in their meaning. The peaceful effect experienced while crocheting seems to be the opposite of unravelling. The word raveling, however, can can also mean to fray, tangle and knot. This phenomena is called a Janus word.

I first learnt to crochet at around the age of 10 perhaps, at classes run at the Country Women’s Association Tea Rooms in Spinks Park, Lismore, NSW, Australia. I recall how patient they were teaching a left-handed child. Now middle-aged and living overseas, I think the process of crocheting is giving me the satisfying feeling of bringing my past, present and future together, and feeling connected to a long line of women, at home and overseas.

I think it’s time to teach my 8 year old daughter to crochet and maybe my 20 year old son as well.

The Abu Dhabi Coral Reef is a collaboration between NYU Abu Dhabi and the Institute for Figuring and will be exhibited in Spetember 2014. https://www.facebook.com/NYUADCoralReef