I am a trained seamstress and I loved working with textiles, not only sewing, also crocheting, knitting, patchworking, … Creating something with my hands out of textiles and fibres always gave me huge joy.
In my thirties i decided to learn something new and spent the last twenty years working in the area of digital media, mainly for the web. There was little time and energy left for crafting, experimenting and playing with textiles. But the wish to do so never vanished.
In the beginning of 2022 i decided: C´est bon, i want to create textile things again. But i felt kind of paralyzed. There were ideas in my head, yet i was not able to start. I think i was scared, that i am not good enough or that it will not turn out the way i “see” it in my imagination. And there was the fear of the opinion of other persons, of devaluation.
However, one day i thought: Ok, if i am not able to come up right now with my impeccable genial masterpiece, maybe it makes more sense to start with tiny steps.
The backpack in black-white tapestry crochet
I found the work of Molla Mills coincidentally on one of my inspirational surfing experiences in the web and chose her pattern “POHJANMAA backpack” for restarting my textile journey.
So i spent many many hours crocheting. While following the instructions and learning a new technique (i did not know tapestry crochet before), the wonder happened: First i relaxed myself, then i became happy, my heart and everything opened up and at a certain point it began to flow. Ideas and images popping up in my head, my thoughts were weaving a net of inspiration and motivation.
This is the result:
I extended the instructions and made a very functional inner life for the backpack out of the inner life of an old broken bag.
The iPad sleeve in white-black tapestry crochet
Fortunately I bought too much yarn. So my next step was an adaptation of this pattern: I inverted the colors and the size to make a sleeve for my iPad:
The closure is made with big snap fasteners.
The laptop sleeve crocheted with strawberry bobble flowers and popcorn stitch icecream
Because there was still yarn left I found another lovely patterns of Molla Mills (obviously i really like her style): the strawberry flower pattern and the ice-cream pattern. I mixed both to make a supercute sleeve for my laptop. The bobble stitch and the popcorn stitch are perfect for a protection sleeve because of their 3D-texture.
I made the closure as well with snap fasteners, this time in a more secure manner.
Conclusio
Using the instructions and the designs of another designer (and then slowly building on it) helped me so much to start and keep going.
I am still astonished how relaxing the act of crocheting is for my mind. I forgot it over the years.
More crocheting work
Granny top made of colorful granny squares
Crocheted water bottle sleeves in two sizes
Hide a stain with a rainbow granny!
