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What do your friends and family think about your crochet enthusiasm??


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My DH honestly thought I would stop after Christmas. I kept telling him that I'm obsessed but he didn't believe me. Since I'm so "crafty" he keeps expecting me to switch to something else.

 

He gets really ticked off that I crochet at night while watching TV. Hmmm, he plays Chess on his Laptop while I'm crocheting so what's the difference?

 

The rest of my family thinks I 'knit' and that there is no difference between the two...

 

Donnalynn2:

Had to laugh when I read your post that some in your family think you "knit":haha I get that alot too, when I tell them It's not knit, I crochet they just say whatever its all the same I'm way to busy with my career (rudely implying just because I don't work outside the home now that there is something wrong with me. .:coffee:hook I just think to myself. (I've helped with my 2 stepkids, I have a teen daughter, a husband, I helped take care of my terminal mother, I help take care of my fil, my dad, one stubborn dog. I cook, I clean, do copious amounts of laundry please If I wanna crochet till my fingers fall off I'm gonna do it lol)

coffeeandcrochet

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My husband, for the better part of this last year kept referring to my crocheting as knitting and even though, after a while, I figured that he was just saying that to get a rise out of me, I kept on correcting him...I patiently explained the difference over and over and over again...

 

But to be fair, he doesn't know the difference between needlepoint, embroidary, knitting or crochet...but bless him, he's in awe of what I do...

 

I'm really blessed that he doesn't get snarky about me and my passions...he doesn't expect me to stop crocheting just because he walked in the door at night...but I do try to meet him part way...and when we travel, he reminds me to bring something...

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Just this morning my husband saw me on here and asked what i was doing, i told him i was looking at a couple patterns (i started a thread looking for a baby hat pattern) and he said "Just how many things are you trying to do??" lol, most of the time, since i'm the only family member i know that crochets or knits, i get asked to make lot's of stuff mostly afghans and dishcloths :cheer

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What is with people who can't get the difference between knitting and crocheting??? One requires a hook and one requires two needles. Not to mention the fact that the final product looks quite different...

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so very true, i finally have gotten my sisters corrected. hubby and kids of course know i crochet and knit, but more often or not i am crocheting. my hubbys like that too. which i am very grateful for as i take my work with me everywhere i go:blush :blush

Donnalynn2:

Had to laugh when I read your post that some in your family think you "knit":haha I get that alot too, when I tell them It's not knit, I crochet they just say whatever its all the same I'm way to busy with my career (rudely implying just because I don't work outside the home now that there is something wrong with me. .:coffee:hook I just think to myself. (I've helped with my 2 stepkids, I have a teen daughter, a husband, I helped take care of my terminal mother, I help take care of my fil, my dad, one stubborn dog. I cook, I clean, do copious amounts of laundry please If I wanna crochet till my fingers fall off I'm gonna do it lol)

coffeeandcrochet

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People sometimes look at me strange. I just reply "Idle hands are the devil's workshop" :)

 

I always have a small project with me to work on in case I get stuck with 5 mintues on my hand. I love crochet cotton for that reason, it's easy to take along. I make a lot of wash clothes :)

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I'm the only one I know who crochets except of course the girls in my Project Linus group. There I feel accepted. All of the people I know think I'm a little strange but do marvel at what I make, I don't mind the praise. New mothers rave over my baby blankets. My hubby puts up with the yarn as he's addicted to farm tractors, I crochet as we travel to the conventions as in Indiana adn Ohio from PA. Charlene

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I know what you mean. I get so enthusiastic about a new yarn or project and mid-way through my rant to whomever it may be, I start to wonder, why aren't you as excited about this as I am? Did you see the yarn? Did you feel it?:lol

 

That's why I love this site!

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Wow--having gotten through all 11 pages of this, it's hard to think of what I've experienced that isn't already covered! I am fortunate enough to have a very kind and accepting group of family and friends around...and they are QUITE used to me picking up all sorts of hobbies and passionately devoting myself to them. I have often said that my hobby *is* collecting hobbies! :lol As far as my wonderful boyfriend goes, he usually just chuckles and shakes his head whenever others comment on my obsession, then says something along the lines of "That's my Stevie".

 

I *love* to crochet and knit in public! I've developed all sorts of little tricks for crocheting while I'm walking around. My favorite way is to hang an open-topped tote-bag on my shoulder and just let the yarn feed right out the top. My sewing friend just recently made me a special totebag for Christmas that is perfect for this purpose. :manyheart I have such wonderful friends! I have had my public crocheting/knitting commented on before--usually people are just surprised--and once, while knitting at work while I waited for my ride, a client sat and stared at me as if I were knitting with animal entrails! :think It was a pretty rainbow varigated worsted weight, I swear!

 

I honestly came into yarnwork in part because I was looking for something to do during all the occaisions I find myself sitting around listening to people talk. Now I'm awfully, awfully talkative myself, but I was finding myself getting antsy with nothing to occupy my hands. And while I have my books and my Gameboy, and even drawing and painting, all of these activities cause me to tune others out--I can't hear a word you say when I'm reading, and if I'm drawing, you'd have to drop an elephant on my head to get my attention! So yarnwork provided a simple and convenient solution. :hook I just recently started working with thread projects, and I *love* the easy travel size of the thread rolls! Even the hooks fit into my tiny "spare parts" bag that I use for things like folding scissors and needle covers. :manyheart So tiny and perfect and cuuute...ay, me, I think I may be a budding thread addict!

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What is with people who can't get the difference between knitting and crocheting??? One requires a hook and one requires two needles. Not to mention the fact that the final product looks quite different...
Not everyone knows that, especially if they've never been exposed to either. My husband called it sewing for awhile but he's learned.

We all make those kind of mistakes in areas we know nothing about. ;)

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  • 1 month later...

Well I guess I'll revive this old thread.

 

I've had mixed reactions to my crocheting since I picked it up again a year and a half ago. My husband has been totally cool with it -- he's even picked up yarn for me when asked on his way home from work. :) My sons (ages 7 and 4) love it. They love to look and see what new things I'm creating or working on and both of them love to snuggle with afghans while I'm working on them.

 

My mother in law thinks it's weird. I was crocheting a baby afghan at her house not long after I'd picked the hobby up again (after learning when I was a little girl then not doing anything for years) and MIL made a comment on how "it's strange to see someone so young doing that. I thought crochet was only for little old ladies." You know, that bothered me. My mother crocheted for years. I believe she started in her late teens and did until the day she died (very prematurely) 6 years ago at the age of 46. I hardly think that qualifies as little old lady status. And at 28, *I'm* certainly no little old lady. But I DO love to crochet.

 

I'm a bit nervous about her thoughts on my crocheting because right now I'm in the middle of a beautiful afghan for MIL for Mother's Day, but I'm so worried she'll not like it.

 

My sister in law is the reason I picked the hobby up again. She and I were talking on the phone one day and she said she'd like to learn to crochet and asked if I knew anyone who could do it. I told her my mother had taught me when I was young and if she gave me a few weeks I'd see if I could remember the basic stitches enough to teach her. Well, I remembered and we got together for her "lesson". It did not go well. She just didn't really get it, but also, it didn't seem like she really wanted to learn either. Does that make sense? Like she wants to do it, but doesn't want to put the time into *learning* to do it. Anyway, now if I show her some of the afghans I've finished, she just hmmphs at me, or if I mention it on the phone, I get an "oh" or sometimes dead silence. Sometimes I even get the dreaded "is that ALL you ever do??" :angry:rolleyes

 

Because of their reactions, I've never taken any projects with me to work on in public. If I get these kind of reactions from family, I can't and don't want to imagine what strangers will do.

 

I've basically resigned myself to *not* talking about it with family anymore, which is why I *love* this forum. You all understand ;)

 

And *no one*, not even my husband, knows about my crochet blog. Well, you guys do, and the people at the Crochet forum at about.com know, but no family. They just wouldn't understand. :lol

 

Ok I'm off my soapbox rant. ;):soap

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My family has only positive responses to my crocheting-

several have asked me to make them things-

i am thrilled that they like what i have made

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All the women in my family crochet, so they dont mind. I keep all my hooks in a plastic pencil box, and at work one day I dropped the box and the girls made fun of me as they all clanked all over the floor. I scurried to pick them all up and they laughed and said "do you really need THAT many?!" I turned and said, "They are all different sizes, so YES!" (I get very defensive), I also hate when people say I am "knitting"- I always correct them.

Most women admire the talent- most men love the domesticity.

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You know, I don't get a lot of negative comments, but when I show someone something I've made, they seem to think I have too much time on my hands. I hate that!

 

I know that feeling. Instead of appreciating your time and talents, they assume that you must be slacking in other areas so that you can crochet.

 

Some of us just manage our lives differently.

 

My brother-in-law was simply amazed that I could crochet quickly and stay in the conversations at family gatherings. I can also walk and chew gum. Amazing!

 

It keeps my hands busy so that I am not eating snacks, or smoking (like the rest of the family does).

 

Sometimes, ignorance can be annoying.

 

Linda:manyheart

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Everything in this thread makes me realize how very, very lucky I am. My mother is a high-end knitter, so she appreciates any kind of fiber work, and my mother-in-law is a (retired) professor of art education, and she's all about the hands-on crafts. My father-in-law, a musician, is so supportive of her crafts that they have a tiny pottery studio (with a high cathedral ceiling for light and an AC because it's Texas) in their small backyard. My husband, having grown up as the guinea pig for thousands of kid craft projects, is supportive in his way, which is that he doesn't complain too much about all the yarn or the yarn bills. (He is annoyed that he doesn't get as many footrubs during TV because I'm doing something else with my hands.) My kids think it's great. My kindergarten daughter is thrilled to have anything new and girly made just for her, and my eight-year-old son has taken up a bizarro form of freeform crochet where he makes chains and tangles them back on themselves and uses them as cat toys. Because I've dragged him to so many craft stores, he's taken up embroidery, and is working on a case for his Gameboy that has the whole Pacman 2000 family on it. So it's all been very good.

 

Moving out of the family circle, I've never gotten any hostile or bemused looks from strangers, and I crochet every-freaking-where. At the doctor's office. Surgical waiting rooms. While the kids are in sports. Waiting in the lobby of the Newark CA community recreation center for enough people to leave the indoor pool that we could get in. To say nothing of public transportation. Sometimes people comment but not yet negatively.

 

I do find that people assume that I have no professional career if I'm sitting around with a crochet hook but that's because I don't usually need to wear career drag. I wonder if it's because of the hook or because of the jeans. Probably the jeans.

 

Anyway, I'm clearly a lucky, lucky person.

 

--Elissa

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My husbands mother was a crocheter and a quilter so he knew about those things before I got started. The one thing that really got me was he said I don't know how you do that? You know the crocheting itself fascinates him he's very mechanically good but this baffles him. LOL It's something I can do but I don't know how to work on the cars so that's his deal.

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My family is so very glad I've kept the crocheting tradition going. Our Mother always had a project in her hands and it never fails to bring back good memories when they see me with mine. I hope it can be said of me someday as it has been of her - "You never saw Glenda with idle hands" -

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Younger son (21) lovingly (I hope) refers to home as the Little House of Crocheted Horrors. What was your question?? But he still gives me a cuddle and occasionally slips a bit of money in my purse to buy a bit of "string". I make his girlfriend "thinking of you" presents which she always gets really excited about so we quietly get back at him.

 

DD horrified me last time she was home from uni. She found a pattern book with several ruffled doilies and wants me to make one for her!!! I suppose I might have to duck for cover, but I hate ruffled doilies and I wouldn't have thought they were the "in" thing amongst the 20's crowd. I think I'm going to be really busy. Made her a suncatcher to put in her bedroom but she put it in the dining room so "everyone could see it".

 

Elder son always make a comment about the time that I must have put into a piece of work. Made him a large beaded (doily) suncatcher which he put on the kitchen window above the sink. When I suggested he put it somewhere else, he said that he put it there because he spent most of his "at home" waking hours in the kitchen and he wanted to look at it.

 

They obviously like what I do and are happy to show it off but I don't think they have really thought about the whys and wherefores much. They all have knitted, crocheted and sewn toys which I made for them from their babyhood that are stashed away amongst their treasures. It's probably quite everyday ho-hum to them.

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My family is great about it, when I really get stressed out, my hubby says maybe you need to "crochet" for awhile.....Crocheting has what has been keeping me going the last few months and crochetville has also :manyheart

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At first people would just smile indulgingly at me when I told them I crocheted (I started 6 years ago). Now that I've been getting better and they're seeing what I'm doing, I've even started teaching some how to crochet! A couple of them used to crochet, and now they're picking it up again because my enthusiasm was contagious! And let's face it -- Crochet is easy to be enthusiastic about! :D

 

We have a group in our church and we get together the first Thursday of every month to share our crafts. We've decided we need to meet more often than every month.

 

You know that expression from someone like the Yarn Council or Crochet Guild (or someone like that) "Each one Teach One (or two or three)" so crochet won't become a lost art? I took that to heart! :hook:manyheart

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My family likes my crocheting just fine. I'm the only one in my extended family who does! Nobody would have any afghans were it not for me!

 

Anyway, occasionally my Mom will make comments like "Don't you have enough afghans" as though somebody COULD have too many afghans. That is why last year, I started crocheting some things other than afghans. Slow going though. I love afghans. Most of the patterns I do are ideal take-a-long projects. This year, I'm doing/finishing some more challenging ones. I intend to finish my 63 square afghan and I just started CrochetDude's Afghan from the Crochet Calender.

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I resemble that remark :lol

 

My mother has no problem with it, my grandmother crocheted and Mom did too for awhile and then put it down. Husband is just awesome, he teased me about it at first then he saw the things I can make with it and now I think he's secretly proud.. he has no problem with "the stash" getting spread all over the living room and he's even put in a request for a nice thick, warm scarf for this winter. I'll actually probably wind up making him mittens or gloves because it's impossible to find gloves to fit him that don't cost an arm and a leg (he's 6'6") I do think he is starting to have anxiety attacks when I mention the words "trip to" and "yarn store" in the same sentence :lol:lol

 

My girls both are taking it up and learning so I'm proud of them. It's truthfully something to keep my hands busy and doing something.. I cann't sit down anywhere without working on something though (including the theatre :hook )

 

HAVE TO answer this one! My hubby is 6'6" too, and around 300 lbs. How do you figure out how to make him stuff? I'm really recent to clothing, and the fit has me baffled:think :think :think :think :think

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[because of their reactions, I've never taken any projects with me to work on in public. If I get these kind of reactions from family, I can't and don't want to imagine what strangers will do.

 

I've basically resigned myself to *not* talking about it with family anymore, which is why I *love* this forum. You all understand ;)]Quote

 

I crochet everywhere I get a couple minutes, and I get lots of affirmation. People are just astonished at things being created right in front of their eyes. They mostly wish they could do it, too, so even tho I'm not so learned I have taught several the basics. Most catch on really fast.

My DH is amazed. All those tiny stitches added to patience and it makes something beautiful! Of course the first piece of clothing I made was AWESOME IMHO! And I made him an afghan/blanket 30+ yrs ago when he was in the Navy and navy blankets covered either his shoulders or his feet but not both. Its on our bed to this day.

Now I'm just gotten back into it about 5 months ago after a megga long break (about 15 yrs?) and have gone a bit crazy. I have so many UFOs and things in my mind that I want to try. Wish I were better at design..

Well, enough for now. My cleaning has been put off long enough!

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My 9 year old son gets a little annoyed that I take crocheting or knitting with me everywhere... but other kids seem real interested in what I am doing and ask to watch....even the boys!

 

My husband is ALOT annoyed by all the yarn.

 

:manyheart Cheryl

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HAVE TO answer this one! My hubby is 6'6" too, and around 300 lbs. How do you figure out how to make him stuff? I'm really recent to clothing, and the fit has me baffled:think :think :think :think :think

 

If you're wondering what to make your hubby, go to: http://www.io.com/~cortese/crafts/raglan.html This is a guide to crocheting or knitting a sweater from the top down. I found it was a snap to crochet myself a sweater, and I've gotten a lot of complements on it.

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