Hayley: So, recently Victoria and I have become full-fledged fiber artists. Well, very amateur ones, but enthusiastic ones! Victoria has taken up crocheting, and I am investing in embroidery.
I am surprised that it took me this long into the pandemic to pick up a new crafty hobby. I guess I was too busy making bread and staring at the wall and taking little walks and getting into Korean dramas and now I have fallen into crafting territory.
The reason why I chose embroidery was because of TikTok! I kept seeing beautiful little videos and people showing how to do different stitches. I had definitely been curious about embroidery before, but finally with much badgering in the group chat from Victoria (crochet) and our friend Em (sewing) I chose my fighter. I ordered this beginner's kit from Etsy and watched some TikTok tutorials on how to do the various stitches.
What I love about embroidery so far is the repetitiveness of it, and the ease with which I can turn a handful of floss into a flower or a leaf or a vine. It's very meditative, but I also feel a great sense of control when I do it (a huge win for me personally). I've been putting on film scores and doing my little embroidery projects, and the ritual is so lovely.
Victoria, how did you get into crochet? How are you liking it, and what have you made so far?
Victoria: Me and crochet go way back, actually. This story is actually about academic integrity.
Picture it: Winter 2002. My Grandma Viv, who we lived with, has just gotten back into crochet, and is crocheting baby blankets left, right and center. Not for any existing babies, but for her hypothetical great grandchildren (who remain hypothetical). She also made this honestly amazing Christmas blanket, where she made hexagonal granny squares shaped like wreaths and then sewed them together (very similar to this one!). Eventually she lost interest (she also had arthritis in her hands) but for a good year or two she was very prolific.
Enter me, age 10. Our book report theme for the month is a “how to” book, which honestly is a terrible book report theme. Just let me read a little novel! I love little novels! Anyway, I pick a “how to crochet” book, and ask my grandma to teach me. I plan on making a blanket, which was definitely more than I could chew, but no adults stopped me. My grandma showed me the basic stitch, and i made a cute little blob.
But a cute little blob isn’t enough for my class demonstration. So my mom and grandma tell me to just bring one of my grandma’s blankets and pretend I made it. Which I do. I can tell from my classmate’s questions that they are not buying that I made this, but my teacher does and I get an A. I always feel vaguely guilty about it, which I think tinges crochet for me for the rest of my life.
Until last fall! Last fall I started getting a lot of TikToks from people who made very cool cardigans and I thought “OK I could do this!” I picked crochet (instead of knitting) because I had experience with it and it seemed easier. I bought a little kit online, which I ignored until I got Covid in December and had no excuse but to pick it up!
It has been so fun to crochet while watching TV or listening to a podcast or audiobook. Sometimes i have a really hard time paying attention without something in my hands to keep me busy. Now, instead of playing Candy Crush while I watch a movie, I can just crochet (or even just wind balls of yarn!).
Hayley: I'm absolutely LOSING IT at this story! It feels like such a classic grade school story?? Like who among us wasn't scrambling to do some project with the help of various family members? I love that your teacher was like "Great blanket, Victoria!" and your classmates were like "LIARRRRRR!"
I love this history of crochet, and I love the connection to your grandma. My mom enjoys embroidery, and she embroidered flowers on my christening cloth because when she got it, it looked like "some old rag" (her words). My mom also had this little wicker basket sewing kit that she used for a lot of basic mending, like sewing buttons back onto shirts and things like that. When I was in elementary school, I took sewing lessons from my friend's mom where I learned how to sew on a machine. I think it was vaguely related to a Girl Scout badge? I sewed a blanket for my American Girl Doll from scraps of fabric, which I believe I still have somewhere. I also used the sewing machine to embroider little hearts on the edge of the blanket, and that was the first time I really thought that embroidery was cool. Also, one time I sewed over my finger and freaked out! You live and you learn. My finger was fine.
Being in Girl Scouts was a LOT of crafting, and I loved all the projects we made. My mom still has this Christmas Angel that I made one year that has a little canvas robe, wooden wings, and unraveled jute rope hair—she hangs it on the wall on the upstairs landing. I always feel a weird sense of pride that something I made gets such a prominent placement for Christmas decorations. My mom actually has a lot of various crafts and pieces of art that my brother and I have made on display, now that I think about it, both seasonal and permanent. There is nothing like that feeling of accomplishment to have made something by hand, and then to also have it incorporated into home decor!
When I embroider, I feel calm and also nostalgic for that feeling of freedom and curiosity and exploration that I used to have when crafting and making art as a kid. I need to do a better job of doing this as an adult! I also have a lot of perfectionist tendencies (to put it mildly) and crafting can be a risky thing to embark upon because I have to quiet my mind and stop freaking out if something doesn't immediately look good. Something that has definitely helped me "trust the process" has been experimenting with nail art. So often, when you're making your little blobs and dashes and designs on your nails, it looks like random and stupid bullshit. But once it all comes together—and most importantly, a swipe of top coat goes over everything and blurs some of the lines and imperfections—the overall effect is gorgeous.
If you had an unlimited budget and time, what craft would you completely dive into?
Victoria: My grandma also taught me to sew (a little) AND brought me to a class where you learned to use a sewing machine by making a bathrobe for your American Girl doll (it was just two hand towels sewn together with holes for the head and arms). We really lived parallel lives lol.
Girl Scouts particularly and elementary school generally was so much crafting! Like in a lot of ways what we called "art class" was just "craft class," and it was always fun! I think we purged a lot of our childhood crafts at this point, but we used to have a lot that showed up in Christmas decorations — angels for the nativity, ornaments with photos in the center, and this cute little snowman that hugged the top corner of the door. Last week, I went to the Jim Henson exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image, and it struck me how a lot of iconic Muppets creatures are really just crafts! Like someone had an idea, and got a lot of felt and glue and googly eyes and went to town. It felt very democratizing like oh, anyone could just make a little character guy out of anything they want!
I think one of the things that appeals to me about crochet is the lack of permanence. Like if you mess up an entire row (or two or five or a whole sleeve, as I did this week), you can just take it out and do it again! It could not be easier to fix your mistakes, and that's nice!
If I had an unlimited budget and time, I think I would want to explore quilting. It seems very cool, but expensive. And I do ultimately want to learn to knit, but not until my crochet skills are better. Also, maybe I would want to make puppets? The Jim Henson thing was very inspiring to me, clearly. What would you do!
Hayley: Wow PLEASE make puppets???????
Honestly I would love to learn glassblowing. I think it is insane and scary and very, very cool. I'm worried that I am too sweaty of a person to ever really be able to handle it but I can dream. I love how active of a craft it is, you use so much of your body when blowing glass there is something about it that feels like choreography to me. I also think that a lot of glass blown art looks insanely tacky and bad (cancel me! idgaf) and I would make things that are really pretty.
Stuff Victoria Likes:
I finally read Malibu Rising and haven't stopped thinking about it!
The Mitchells vs the Machines is nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars so I finally checked it out on Netflix and it was so, so good!
If you love gossip (who doesn't) you will love the podcast Normal Gossip.
Things Hayley Recommends:
My friend sent me this Y2K playlist and it's all I've put on shuffle recently. I've also been listening to the This is Britney Spears playlist a lot.
I CANNOT recommend this Moroccan Spiced Sweet Potato and Tofu dish highly enough! It's easy, fast, and tastes SO good. I have made it twice already! (Also, it's a very SOFT meal which has been great for me post oral surgery.)
Speaking of tofu: this is your sign to finally get a tofu press. The difference in the texture of my tofu after using one was UNREAL. I have this one, and the design is great: you can even drain out the water while the tofu is still in the press.
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