Introduction

Since I have been little, I have crafted. Crafts were a foundational part of my childhood. I got this skill from my grandmother, who would always have a craft ready whenever I came home from school. Even at twenty-one, I still make ornaments with her after every Christmas dinner. As I have gotten older, my crafting has gotten a bit more complicated than crafting kits my grandmother would buy from the Dollar Tree. Through a lot of trial and error, I have found three crafts that I return to over and over again. Like everything in your life, your hobbies can teach you important lessons. Today, I want to share with you three lessons I have learned from crafting in hopes that it inspires you to pick up a needle and thread yourself!

Letter Writing

There is nothing better than a handwritten letter. While it might be somewhat old-fashioned, especially since, today, you can contact someone with only a press of a button, I think that there is something special about writing a letter to someone. There is more time, effort, and love that goes into writing a letter than simply sending a text. I want to emphasize the effort part of the last sentence. In fact, it is in the effort that the lesson is revealed. Letter writing has taught me about the importance of intentionality. It can be easy to go through the motions. I have been guilty of it before, especially when times are busy and overwhelming. Your brain and your body are slightly detached from each other. You just do your work without thinking or feeling. Letter writing has always brought me back to the moment and refocuses me. For example, last weekend, my Little Avie became a Big. She has brought three wonderful and kind girls into our sorority family. Avie asked me to write her Littles letters to put in their Big/Little baskets. Not only did I write each of her Littles a letter, but I also wrote Avie a letter. The letters to Avie’s Littles are a way for me to welcome these amazing girls into our family and express my excitement to get to know them better. The letter to Avie is a way for me to continue to support and love Avie as she steps into this new role. I put so much love and attention into my letters that they become an extension of myself. Letter writing is about intentionally giving others love in a physical way. 

Cross Stitching

I learned how to cross stitch from my friend Hope’s mom, and it has easily become one of my favorite things to do. Cross stitching is a form of embroidery that looks like tiny Xs on the fabric. It is a beautiful art form. Cross stitch has taught me the importance of brushing off mistakes. When you first begin cross stitch, you make a lot of mistakes. You can misread the pattern and make one too many stitches. You can run out of thread in the middle of a row. You can drop your needle in the carpet and have to spend five minutes attempting to find it without poking yourself. You can make countless mistakes. For a long time, I used to be afraid to make mistakes. I saw them as signs of failure. Today, I try to see them as signs of growth. No one masters anything without failing at least once. With some time, attention, and effort, mistakes can help you grow. They make you a better person. If you take those lessons to heart, then you can learn to make less mistakes. Almost a year after learning how to cross stitch, I am a lot better at it! My stitches are tighter, my rows are neater, and I’m a lot better at reading patterns. Life works in the same way. Every mistake we make leads us to a better version of ourselves if we put in the effort to understand our mistakes, rectify our mistakes, and learn from our mistakes. I still sometimes make mistakes both in my cross stitch projects and my life, but I always argue that perfection should never be the goal. The goal should always be improvement. Perfection is unattainable, yet improvement is always attainable. We should learn how to stay calm when we mess things up and how to recover from mistakes. Just like in cross stitch, you can always unpick your threads and start again. 

Crocheting

The biggest thing that I learned during my study abroad in London was not academic related. I actually learned how to crochet there! At Queen Mary University in London, there was a crocheting society that I joined as a way to get out of my shell and learn something new. What started as a hobby to help get me off my phone at night has now become a hobby that I return to over and over again. While the act of crocheting is new to me, I was surrounded by it as a child. My great-grandmother – Granny Marcy – crocheted. She passed away when I was young but I have faint memories of her crocheting. She made me this beautiful purple and white blanket when I was little. It sits on my bed to serve as a constant reminder of her and her love. Crocheting taught me that there are so many ways to connect with your ancestors. Whenever I told my grandmother that I learned how to crochet, she said that Granny Marcy would be so proud of me. Whenever I crochet, I always think about my great-grandmother and her life. I think that it is important for everyone to know their family history. To me, crocheting is a part of my family history. It is a tradition that I hope to keep alive in my generation and (eventually) pass down to my own children. It is important for my generation to return to crafts as a way to connect with past generations, especially our family members. 

Conclusion

Sometimes, I think that crafting can be dismissed and undervalued. They are extremely feminine activities since crocheting, cross-stitching, and letter writing have traditionally been seen as domestic work. Also, to anyone who says that these hobbies are easy, I encourage you to try them out for yourself! All of these crafts are easy to get into but difficult to master. I think that is the beauty of crafts. Your time and effort culminate to give you a beautiful finished product. I argue that anyone can and should craft in whatever capacity fulfills them. As you can see from this blog post, you learn some very valuable lessons from every type of crafting!