Martha Stewart and Vanna White

[RuthieinMaryland]

Hi!

I'm so happy to be back here after my absence. Hello, all! Good to "see" you!

I grew up in a city (Baltimore, MD) and in the summer "stoop sitting" was the neighborhood custom. After supper everyone would wash up and we'd either put chushions on the front steps or break out the lawn chairs and line them up. Later on, as a young teenager, my mother even ran an extension cord out the window so I could hook up my record player in front of the house and my young friends and I could dance to the popular songs of the day,played on 45 rpm's! :o) Good times!

But, as a younger child of about 10 or 11 I'd sit next to my mom and watch as she worked on crocheting the individual motifs for a lace tablecloth. She'd work and work and when she had 4 done she'd join them with the little "spider web" looking joining motif. I was fascinated!!!!! This was all done with "10 crochet cotton for bedspreads and tablecloths. Many of the other women lined up in their lawn chairs were working on various crochet projects as well.

My project was to make potholders on a small metal loom, the kind where you wove cotton stretchy loops together and then bound off the edges! I must have made a thousand of them during those years, but I really wanted to learn to crochet like the "women"! My mom got me the yarn and a needle and tried to teach me but for some reason it didn't click! I just couldn't grasp what she was trying to show me.

Finally I went to the local 5 & dime store and bought a little Coat's and Clark instruction book on "How to Crochet". I went home, read the book and started working with the crochet cotton. When I got really frustrated with it I'd go to our next door neighbor who was pretty good at figuring out what I was not understanding. Then one day - VOILA! I got it!!!! And once I had the basics it seems my mom and I could communicate much better on the more advanced stuff.

But there started my love affair with crochet, something I avidly pursued for over 50 years. I toyed with knitting as an older teen but lacked the real education I needed. Then about 4 years ago I picked it up again and am totally hooked!!!!!

I can't count how many projects I've done in crochet that have truly enriched my life and the lives of others and now I've added knitting and the projects I've done since to that roster. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to sit side by side on lazy summer evenings with my fellow "stoop sitters" and learn the remarkable art of crochet. And I'm also grateful for now becoming a rabid knitter who would climb mountains to find just the right yarn for just the right project! :o)

At this point in my life I love sharing the knowledge of both knitting and crochet with the youngsters around me. It's a legacy that shouldn't be lost to the passage of time and I'd encourage anyone to pass it on to others.

Thanks for listening so I could share this with all of you!

Ruthie