Eye - 23 June 2023
From collective nouns to the crochet of life
Collective nouns
‘Of course, few Local Meetings achieve it; nor even Area Meetings. But could one say that at Yearly Meeting there was a “Diversity of Quakers”?’
Jane Taylor
An active silence of Quakers. Or, if you prefer: A silent activism of Quakers.
Gordon Smith
The crochet of life
Having recently found sewing to be a vehicle for surprising personal insights, and pondering whether this was something other Friends might have experienced with their hobbies, Eye was delighted to receive a piece of writing from Danina Stefan, of Peterborough Meeting.
Danina writes: ‘A few days ago I decided that I have needed a small blanket to cover my legs while I teach piano, especially in winter when the weather is cold. First, I was thinking about buying it, but then it came to me: why not crochet it myself?
‘I didn’t have a crocheting needle and yarn, so I ordered them on Amazon. I kind of knew the very basics of crocheting but never really crocheted anything by myself. I searched on YouTube for some videos about crocheting for beginners and, after I found one, I started learning how to crochet. Before you know it, I discovered that it was easy and relaxing, and managed to crochet almost half of the blanket until my yarn was finished and I had to order more of it in order to complete my work.
‘While I was enjoying crocheting, it came to me that it reminded me very much of life itself. We crochet our lives the way we can with the thread that was given to us at birth. Sometimes, it is easy and the pattern is beautiful, but sometimes it is difficult to find an adequate pattern no matter how hard we try. And sometimes, when we expect it the least, the thread breaks, and we have to find the way to mend it somehow in order to carry on.
‘The periods of slow, steady and monotonous work, and the periods of frantic, fast and experimental crocheting, follow each other. Sometimes we don’t want to crochet but nevertheless we carry on. We have to. All of the thread has to be used, whether we like it or not.
‘Yes, there are times when we don’t like our work, and we decide to pull the thread and erase a part of it. But sometimes that is not possible because we crocheted it long ago, and we would also have to erase parts of it which we like in order to reach that one which we don’t want anymore.
‘We crochet and crochet until the whole thread is finished, and our embroidery is finally completed. Then and only then, we finally rest.’
Thank you for these wonderful words Danina. Friends, do any of your hobbies inspire you or offer insights that have surprised you? Eye would love to hear about them!
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