A “write from the trenches” post.
I love to crochet. I love the colors. I love the products when finished. (Three “I love”s in a row and I have set off the alarm on the SEO monitor. But I’m leaving it, on purpose!)
There is a satisfaction to the creative process that is unlike any other feeling. And there is a similarity of process, creative and satisfying, to both writing and crocheting.
Cross-training is a technique to vary your activities to strengthen your abilities in more than one area. Athletes cross-train for better fitness and agility. Employees get cross-training to keep businesses running smoothly in times of disaster, sickness or pandemics, and economic variations. Rounding out your set of skills is good for writers, too! It helps to develop your eye with visual arts, to tune your ear with music, and to steady your moods with performance arts. When you cross-train with other creative modalities, you improve your literary arts.
So here’s a look at crocheting, a textile art, and what it brings to cross-training for writers.
1. Pattern
Crochet is easy, even for the beginner, because you only need to learn two basic stitches to start—how to chain, and how to single crochet—and have a pattern to follow. Everything builds on those two basic stitches—and it becomes easy to move on to half-double crochets, double-crochets, treble crochets, shells and clusters, increases and decreases, skips, and crocheting in the round. As for the pattern, this can be as simple as chaining a certain number, turning and single crocheting into the chain back to the start of your chain, and then chaining one and repeating across the same number of stitches over and over—for a scarf, or a shawl, or a table cloth, or a bedspread, or an afghan (depending on the size you create). There are innumerable patterns available for free and for a cost, verbally or visually demonstrated or available in writing.
Crochet Pattern is like Genre.
The pattern sets the basic story of the creation! With a granny square pattern, you sew all the squares together, but your choice of repetition or sequencing can create different patterns. Crochet a ripple pattern with shells and skips at intervals and create waves. If you crochet a basic stitch and skip moss pattern, you get an entirely different look and feel.
There is no shame in following a pattern. All crocheters do it—especially at the beginning of their learning process.
And this is the basic lesson in cross-training that writers need to recognize. It’s okay if your plot follows the same pattern as all other mysteries, or romances, or sci-fi novels, or young adult fiction. If you use the triumphant fool or the monster in the house or the dude with a problem or buddy love or any other patterned genre for your story, celebrate that you are just as creative as any textile artist who also follows a pattern.
Eventually, you may create your own pattern; or alter a familiar one just a little to suit your needs better; or decide that you want to try them all and keep using patterns. There is NO SHAME in using a pattern for your writing.
2. Color
With crochet, you can get radically different feelings from the exact same pattern and weight of yarn and size of hook, just by changing up the color scheme.
With crochet you can stick to one color, and the pattern will bring out the subtleties of the hue. Or you can use different colors and experiment with brilliant contrasts or ombre shifts or color pooling (a technique that is new for me and very exciting—see Color Pooling Basics at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8jcDkSYkac ). You can have neat transitions or go for a scrappy yarn color look. What color you see also depends on the colors around it.
In writing, we need to think about color more. We need to let it infuse our writing, adding subtle shifts or brilliant changes or repetitive patterns. Try adding scraps here and there, or color the beginning and endings of chapters in characteristic shades. We can try for a monochrome or bi-chrome color scheme or develop an argyle pattern like color pooling! Color serves a function in creative endeavors. And if you’re having difficulty coming up with names for the colors, check out some yarn labels! There are some imaginative color names designed to lure in textile artists and crafters of all kind! Use color in your writing and lure in readers!
3. Texture
Crochet creates texture through different stitches, different yarns and yarn weights, and different hook sizes. Also, the individual who does the work has a technique or method that results in texture—either consistent or inconsistent—and this may be intentional. Also one crocheter may have a tight stitch and another have a loose stitch using exactly the same yarn and hook, just because of the way they handle their materials. Some like smooth; some intentionally add ridges. Crochet into the back loops only on a ripple afghan and you get a definite edge to the wave but crochet into both loops for a smooth feel. Use a single crochet to join granny squares and you get a raised grid border but join with a mattress stitch and everything lies flat.
Just as in crochet, the choices we make as writers will add texture to our stories. We write smooth transitions or abrupt ridges between scenes. We may want a loose feel or a tight feel, and the way we craft our words, sentences, and paragraphs will help formulate that texture.
Our use words incorporate texture into them—sandy or gritty, silky or satiny, glassy or polished. Appreciate the textures of your writing!
4. Scope
One of the most wonderful aspects of crocheting afghans and larger projects is that in the scope of the story, the minor mistakes disappear. The two stitch shell instead of three blends as easily into the pattern and holds it place to do its job and the overall beauty is what counts. The bumpy knot that you may know about isn’t discernible, and if found at all, is just a lovely reminder that the afghan is hand-crafted. The love that is incorporated into every stitch helps the project find a home where it is loved.
And that’s what we want for our novels! A home where it is loved! Don’t fret over the small imperfections in your story. Don’t worry that it isn’t just universally perfect. It is can touch one person, it is a story that needs to be shared.
Write your novels! Let the scope of them develop the magic of the story that will find its home where it will be loved!
5. Yarn
Yarn is a word that comes to us from Old English, gearn, meaning spun fiber or spun wool. Its predecessor in High German was garn, a yarn made of dried gut. Yarn, whether wool or cotton or acrylic or other twisted fibers, is the most common fiber used in crocheting.
Yarn is a word that also signifies a story! It’s use in that context dates from approximately 1812, and seems to have originated among sailors who often told stories as they twisted cord or string for their ropes.
Proof that there is a reason to cross-train!
Conclusion
There are other things to learn in cross-training. For example, I realize that I write and crochet similarly by going slowly at first and speeding up after the midway point. I’m sure there are other lessons. If you need a break from writing, try crochet! Or any other creative endeavor. See what lessons you gain from the cross-training.