Every year on Thanksgiving I share the reasons that I am thankful for crochet and all that it has brought into my life. This if the sixth Thanksgiving post, and as I look back on the posts from previous years, I see that there are endless ways that crochet has improved my life.
In 2011, I shared how grateful I was that crochet had helped pull me out of a deep depression,which is the story that I told in my book Crochet Saved My Life. I expressed how glad I was to have crochet for self-expression, self-soothing and as a continuing source of joy. And I expressed how grateful I was (and am today!) for having found the crochet community.
In 2012, I outlined 20 reasons to be thankful for crochet. Through my research and writing, I had learned about the benefits of mindfulness crochet. I appreciated how crochet connects me to other generations, as well as other family members in my generation. And I shared how much I love being able to support other small business and indie-preneurs who also love crochet.
In 2013, I reiterated the things that I had already shared about loving. I also noted how much I value crochet as a form of art, both in my own life and as a viewer of other’s creations. I shared the beauty of participating in collaborative crochet art projects. And I celebrated how lucky I feel to be able to write about crochet regularly.
In 2014, I expressed that it had been a difficult year for me in many ways, and that I was coming full circle to being grateful for all of the ways that crochet has healed me. I wrote in part, “It may be five years ago that I first discovered how crochet could be a part of my life-saving plan to beat depression but it still works the way it did the first time I (re)picked up the hook.”
And last year I gave specific thanks to all of those people who had participated in the Mandalas for Marinke project as well as those people who were supporting my work through purchases of Crochet Saved My Life and my newer book, Hook to Heal. I recently added how grateful I am to my Patreon supporters for helping me to continue doing this work that I not only love but truly believe in.
Looking back across those posts, I think it has all been said – all of the myriad ways that crochet has helped me in my life and that the people I’ve met through crochet have helped me even more. I continue to have so much gratitude for this craft.