Chan-neling Creativity in Public

I love to crochet in public, don't you?

Having crocheted for awhile (if you're new to my blog, awhile translates to seemingly forever), I am fortunate that as I crochet I can do so without needing to constantly watch what I'm doing. This makes it fun for me to watch others watching me crochet while I'm at various public events -- and opens the possibilities for discussion on crochet, other fiber arts, and so on. There is something about playing with yarn in public that helps people feel comfortable to approach you to talk about what you're working on, to comment that they or a family member did/does it, etc.

Yesterday I crocheted while in the stands at my children's All Star Track Meet with six other schools also running for the trophy. This would prove to be a 6+ hour event; plenty of time for me to cheer and to work on a new (small) crochet project. I decided to take out my "Crochet Lace Innovations" book by Doris Chan and start the The Ling Collar I mentioned in my last entry.

As I cheered and stitched the afternoon away, some of the girls from the kids school sat with me. They asked if they could look at Doris' book; I said they could. I showed them the The Bozena Dress Mini~Dee and I are thinking of making for her Confirmation next year and asked them their thoughts:

"Wow! I really like that!"

"You can do that? I never thought someone could just make something instead of going to a store and buying it!"

"Shouldn't it be in white? I don't think blue would be the right color."

I asked they ever thought of designing something for themselves. "Impossible!" they said.

Impossible? I think not! To prove my point, I asked them to close their eyes and tell me what their dress would look like; soon they were shouting out their ideas. It was amazing to "see" what they were envisioning! When they were done describing what they wanted I said, "Now see, you just designed! Now the next step is to learn the skills (as I held out my project) to make it reality!"

The girls were then called away to prepare to run their heats so that ended our discussion. As I cheered them on, and got in more stitches, I wondered why they initially had a difficult time envisioning designing something for themselves. I wonder if we, as a society, are programing our children to automatically think that everything must come from retailers. And, I wonder, just how much creativity is the world losing each time we thrust a cellphone, computer, electronic game, or ipod into a child's hand...

Seven schools competing for the trophy; one lone crocheter sitting in the stands; three minds opened to Chan-neling their inner creative selves. Yes, I do love to crochet in public! :)