This Yankee Doodles

All week long I have been spending a great amount of time at my children's school -- mostly to keep a close watch on Dee Jr. to ensure he doesn't rip out any stitches, and no, we're not talking about crochet stitches.  We're talking about the boo-boo kind. 
 
To help pass the time at the school I've been bringing my crochet with me, particularly some freeform pieces I've been fiddling with for a group project I'll be contributing to.  The children, upon seeing the pieces, would ask what I was crocheting.  I'd reply that it was "freeform," and they'd ask, "What's that?"

After giving it some thought as to how to explain what freeform is to school aged children ranging from 1st to 5th grade, I decided to compare it to doodling -- the action of taking a pencil, pen, marker or crayon to paper and wiggling & giggling casually all over it until a unique design appears that is satisfying to the artist.  The children accepted this comparison and stated they were impressed that one can "doodle" with a crochet hook and some yarn.

So there I was this afternoon, working on my freeform when I hear one child whispering to another, "There she goes! Doodling with that yarn again!"  At the time I was playing with the stitch "wings" from the Textured Crochet: More than 70 Designs with Easy-to-Follow Charts book.

Living here in the northeast, and now having children reference freeform crochet as "doodling," I guess it's appropriate to call me a Yankee Doodler!  {chuckles}