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Hailing from an over-achieving family
background has its own pitfalls. I hail from a family of women
with extremely talented fingers, be it their embroideries or
tatting or crochets or knitted scarves, these women put others
to shame.
My grandmother now in her late 60's still
makes it a point to keep her busy by doing hand embroidery for
my dresses. My mom in spite of working finds embroidery
relaxing. Legend has it that, she started designing
boutique-worthy saris by the time she was in class 8 and this
was much before times of Manmandir’s and Varshidi's and in the
small town of Trichy. So me, the lucky one grew up with designer
wear, lovely salwars, amazing saris and classy tops all designed
and lovingly stitched by mom or grandmother.
Hailing from an over-achieving family
background has its own pitfalls. I hail from a family of women
with extremely talented fingers, be it their embroideries or
tatting or crochets or knitted scarves, these women put others
to shame.
My grandmother now in her late 60's still
makes it a point to keep her busy by doing hand embroidery for
my dresses. My mom in spite of working finds embroidery
relaxing. Legend has it that, she started designing
boutique-worthy saris by the time she was in class 8 and this
was much before times of Manmandir’s and Varshidi's and in the
small town of Trichy. So me, the lucky one grew up with designer
wear, lovely salwars, amazing saris and classy tops all designed
and lovingly stitched by mom or grandmother.
And for the longest time, my mom and
grandmother patiently tried to nudge me towards cross-stitch
kits, and knitting needles. After the necessary SUPW classes in
school I never bothered to touch a needle again in life. But the
truth is I am really lazy and sitting at a spot, knit and stitch
is not my game. The gene has somehow skipped me.
A few weeks ago, in an attempt to develop
some skills and kill time I decided to crochet. Crocheting
seemed like a good starting point just coz I remembered how to
do the basic chain stitch and terms like double, treble.
After a quick search in the library catalog
and the “Getting Started Crochet” in hand I started the
processes of choosing a design - the simplest scarf design
seemed to be a good starting point. A trip to the neighborhood
craft store and soon I was the proud owner of lovely blue and
purple yarn and a few crochet hooks.
The crocheting begun and the first day was a
mess, my fingers were not moving the way I wanted them to. But
slowly I got a hang of it and then few days down the lane, the
usual boredom stuck. For the ever-restless and impatient me, the
scarf could not easily be done. Repeating the same stitches over
and over every evening was getting too much of a routine and I
hate anything routine. But this time around I was not planning
to give up. I hung on there, repeating the stitches and finally
after 4 weeks and numerous one-on-one talks of self-motivation
with me, the scarf is done.
It is the first one so it is special, in
spite of a few imperfections that a trained eye can easily spot.
I am sure mom and grandmother are happy that I have a bit of
patience to hang on and finish on a project I started. Not just
happy but relieved too - they cannot imagine they brought up
their gal with no patience and no interest in embroidery.
I would love to hear from my readers. Please
contact me at
viniscorner@gmail.com
- V
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