Mindfulness versus mindlessness

Sometimes people who don’t crochet think that crochet is wonderful because they imagine you can do it while thinking about something else or while not thinking at all.

However, what I like about crochet is not that it allows me to think about other things (or nothing, as the case may be), but that it keeps me focused on the business at hand — namely crochet.

The scrap cats I am currently working on are an example of this.

Once I get to the “scrap yarn” portion of the cat, if I am crocheting mindlessly rather than mindfully, it is easy to skip over a stitch and make an inadvertent decrease or to crochet into the same stitch twice, thereby creating an inadvertent increase, but if I pay attention, it generally comes together quite nicely, if not quickly, and the scrap cat takes on a life of its own.

Friday, I ran errands for what seemed like all day, and there were times where I would have found it quite helpful to have a pair of ruby slippers imbued with the power to bring me home if I just clicked my heels three times, but unlike Dorothy, I don’t have any magical shoes, but when I finally did make my way home, I experienced a sense of profound relief to have the erranding behind me and my crochet in front of me.

Looking for a quick crochet fix, I got out my six scrap cat bases, and started working on rounds 3-15 which are the rounds I work exclusively in the scrap yarn.

It is not quick work, but it demands attention, and that is where I wanted to be. Paying attention to what was right in front of me.

By mid-afternoon today, I had finished the first 15 rounds of one of the scrap cats and was well on my way to the fifteenth round of a second scrap cat.

Here they can be seen in a group photo: