You can do it, one beautiful piece at a time, like a Granny Square
Spring Break….ahh, just the thought puts me in a hopeful, creative, and good-for-my-soul state of mind. The hope for rest, reading, and creating, but also for the more challenging things, I often put off. Emptying boxes of memories piling up in the garage, clearing clutter, sharing books with little libraries, and tackling the long list of things to do at home.
I look forward to this just as I would if we traveled our beautiful country to visit sites, family, and friends. Before I could schedule a plan for this break, I developed a full-blown cold. I fought it with Halls, Vicks, Kleenex, Barry’s, Ray’s Chicken soup, and Granny Squares.
Inspired by our Makerspace club, student leaders who showed members how to make granny squares, and by a request from my nephew to make him a blanket out of Granny Squares, I tried making one. A 6”x6” creation from a rainbow of colors in skeins of yarn and one G crochet needle is all I needed. I stared at all ten colors, wondering where to start, with my perfectionist tendencies creeping up, I told myself, “Just try it, you can pull it apart if it’s no good” like I teach my students. I finally made a loop and started with orange for good energy after the self-talk and encouragement. With a feeling of satisfaction and a smile, I quickly had a unique creation in my hand, ready to put more colors together to create another.
The desire to create and enjoy art and the love of my family pulled me out of the negative of my cold ruining my spring break. It kept me still long enough to make 31 squares so far. I have one more to make today. I did the math and need 80 to 100 squares to complete the Granny Square blanket and bed cover. To avoid getting overwhelmed and sore hands, I set a goal to make four squares a day. I am at least a third of the way to a finished blanket, to my amazement.
I can’t help but compare this to my many goals that are waiting to be done. This is how I get things done in the library, at home, and in my personal life (see January Blog Post). This creative endeavor has taught me always to pace myself and plan. I’ve done it to renovate the library at MSD, work in a healthy lifestyle, and read the books in my stacks too. Oh, I also listened to many audiobooks and took mindful breaths while I’ve been crocheting, more dividends along with the good feelings while I’m in the flow of creativity.
My therapist says we all do what we want to do. I didn’t think I’d be making a granny square afghan during Spring Break, but it reached the top of the list since Alexander requested it. It’s been excellent therapy for my left hand, tested a good model for getting things done, one square at a time (one box at a time in the garage), and gave me something to share and write about.
Earlier today when I realized I was running out of time on this last day of break, instead of doing nothing for my garage project, I set a very short goal and dealt with two small areas, it felt good to complete it, kind of like the little doable granny squares. I will stay focused on realistic goals for getting what I want to do accomplished, I have to, it’s back to school again tomorrow.
Get inspired to make your own granny square project with the resources below.
https://blog.bellacococrochet.com/granny-squares/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzhZI8e8o9U
