Why I Picked Up Knitting and Crocheting & What My Goals Are for 2020

A few years ago, out of the blue, I started to knit up a frenzy. My family members didn’t understand why I suddenly became so passionate about knitting and looked at my new found hobby as a phase I’ll eventually become to frustrated to continue. This only got worse when I talked about one day picking up crochet, with family members openly talking about how bad I was at committing to a goal and how I needed to get a real life, a real job, and stop pretending that I don’t have a care in the world.

As you can imagine, I’m still hurt by their comments, but at that time all I could think about was how wrong they were and how wrong they were about my new hobbies. Although I never talked to my family members about my life, my job, and, if they knew me aside from what I liked to post on Facebook at that time, they would know how chaotic my life was back then, I knew they would never understand the reason why I knew I would never give up knitting or crocheting.

Recently, I’ve reflected a lot about my life and what happened to me in the last decade. One of them was about my family and how unsupported of me during times of crisis or during my struggle with an antibiotic resistant infection and the complications associated with it. Since I picked up knitting and crocheting during the time of my illness, I wanted to talk more openly about why I picked up both hobbies, why I want to continue them, and what my ultimate goals are for both hobbies. And no, my goal is not to knit and crochet to get on my family member’s nerves. The reason why I picked up both knitting and crocheting is more simple, and serious, than that.

It was to help my recovery from my antibiotic resistant infection.Although I enjoy sewing and photography as my hobby, I was unable to devote complete focus on both because of the nerve pain I developed. My infection spread throughout my body and it eventually began to affect my nerves and my spinal cord. As a result, I have nerve damage from the infection. The nerve damage is healing, but it’s something that takes time and patience.

My doctors knew I had trouble getting used to moving with the nerve damage (I always felt as though my body felt weaker and not as responsive as it was before my infection) so they recommended that I pick up some new hobbies. They felt that I would have better luck adjusting to the way my nerves felt as well as feeling the slow healing progress better if I did something that was more interactive and enjoyable than going to a physical therapist. The hobbies they recommended included hiking, going to places such as museums where I needed to stand but there were places for me to sit if I became too tired, and knitting and crocheting. Sewing is also a hobby they recommended, but since I was a sewing hobbyist prior to becoming ill, they recommended I continue it, but also pick up knitting and crocheting.

The reason why my doctors wanted me to continue sewing and pick up knitting and crocheting is because they wanted me to work on my fine motor skills. Although my fine motor skills were never as bad as my doctors feared, they noticed problems with my ability to handle a pen and pencil as well as other abilities that required my hands. Although I already did things that required fine motor skills, learning to do something new, such as knitting and crocheting, or doing something familiar with repetitive moves that changes depending on the project, such as hand sewing fabrics in a variety of thicknesses, would help my brain understand how my hands muscles and nerve endings worked with the nerve damage.

After knitting and sewing for years, I decided this year would be the year I finally pick up crocheting. The reason why I avoided picking up crocheting is because my doctors wanted me to crochet left handed. I’m a dominant right handed person, so they wanted something I could work on with my left hand to strengthen my motor skills in it. My doctors ended up picking crochet because I hand sew and write right handed. (I must knit everything I make from the front so I can work both hands)

So, there you have it! That’s the reason why I picked up knitting and why I will begin crocheting this year. (And with my non dominant hand!) Although I’m happy with the progress I made (and the positive effects it had on my hand strength and my motor skills) I still have goals I want to achieve before the end of the year. Here are my goals for knitting and crocheting this year:

• Pick up crocheting using my left hand. After talking with people who tried crocheting left handed, this will be hard to learn, but I’m hopeful I will learn it by the end of the year! I’m not sure how good I will be, but oh well. For me, learning crocheting is not about becoming an expert. It’s about strengthening my fine motor skills!
• Successfully crochet myself a rug.
• Crochet a doily or, if I’m good enough, some nice lace I can use in my sewing. (Highly doubtful about the lace, but still. It’s something I want to work towards.)
• Knit myself a sweater.
• Knit a project with a pattern rated at a higher complexity level.
• Maybe not begin or finish but defiantly create a pattern to knit a Christmas tree skirt.

So, that’s about it! I hope this post was helpful in understanding what kind of posts that will pop up on my blog this year and in the future!

Thank you for reading!