You think you can’t but you can.

A couple of years ago or five, one of my sons asked if I could crochet him a Pokemon character. He was collecting Pokemon cards at the time, and one of the cards had the character crocheted instead of drawn, and it looked cool. He said, “Could you make something like that for me?” I said, “Uh, I have no idea how to do that, but let me try and figure it out.”

I procrastinated. I tried to look up YouTube videos. I bought a crochet hook and gave it a try. It was too confusing, I couldn’t get the terminology and it reminded me of all of my failed knitting experiments years ago. I paint very easily but feel less confident in 3-D spaces. I was having flashbacks to freshman year in Design School when we had to design a stool out of cardboard and mine collapsed. Not to mention my summer in architecture discovery camp where mine was the only beach house that would most likely physically move itself into the sea. I quietly hoped the request would be forgotten. And so (thankfully) it was.

Then about a year later over Christmas, I saw a course online about crocheting your own sweater. It promised an easy method, and so I bought it. The course was in Spanish, (we were in Spain at the time) and I have no idea why it clicked but it did. I ended up making the whole sweater. In truth I only wear it over my pyjamas, but it was an accomplishment nonetheless. And it got me started. Afterwards I made a miniature sweater for my son’s stuffed animal.

My newfound confidence led me to try an actual stuffed animal, a bear. I found the pattern online. It looks more like an otterbear, but I made it and stuffed it. I bought a book on Amigurimi. Working smaller felt a bit more practical and I started carrying around my projects when we went on walks in the woods or mountains. Or on planes or trains.

At this point I realised that I like to make things that I can use. I decided to try a bag. It turned out to be huge, which is perfect for carrying around my yarn and supplies when I wander around the house. I then made a smaller bag which now holds a bunch of scissors. I then made a clutch to learn tapestry crochet. I haven’t used it but it looks nice!

I made two pairs of slippers to wear to keep my feet warm on our wooden floor. I took one pair to a quilting workshop I went to, and the teacher asked where I got them. When I said that I had made them, she was impressed and asked how. I said, “I have no idea. I bought a book and after so many projects it just worked.”

I’ve always been good at following written instructions. I like manuals. If a pattern is well written, it’s easy to follow once you understand the steps. Last summer I found my latest project, a blanket made of hexagons. I could work on it in parts and take it around with me. I took it to the beach, and crocheted at night while we were watching tv.

The blanket is almost done. And I've already started another, striped this time. It’s amazing to work on such a large project. It gives scale to your accomplishments. I typed in crochet on my phone’s picture search, and all of these past projects came up; the slippers, granny squares done on the plane, the otterbear made during the long train delay due to the protest in Biarritz, the bag made in Eindhoven when I went to check out the furniture fair, a small cactus in a pot on my studio windowsill, made from a kit.

Small steps over time make a huge difference. We know this, we hear it all the time, but somehow, in the Doing, we realise how far we have come and how much we have learned. To our credit! To all of our hard work! It applies to everything in life, but I learned it through crochet. It reminds me that we so often think that we Can’t do something, when in fact, we most certainly and definitely can. We don’t have to rush. Or create something BIG. We can take our small steps, one stitch at a time.