Feral Fifties - Learning Grandma Skills

Losing weight on Noom, and gaining a lot more confidence in what my body can do, happened to coincide with turning fifty. I like to tell people, "I quit my job, got a bunch of ink, and joined the circus." 

That's not entirely untrue. I left my job at the career college in 2019, on my fifteenth anniversary. I wasn't quite fifty when I made that jump. I didn't like the way the college was going, and morally, I couldn't do it any more. I used to be proud of the impact I made on our students, and knew that the graduates I was putting out into the field were the very best of the lot. However, over time, I became more and more constrained by corporate. I was being told to do things that went against every fiber of my being, and I just couldn't do it any more. 

As soon as I found out about our surprise Gremlin, I embraced the whole grandma thing and learned to crochet. I mean, what is more grandma than crochet? My great-grandma had tried to teach me when I was young, but gave up in frustration when I struggled with even finger crocheting a chain. My Grandma Mary also tried to teach me, but gave up. Luckily, I ran across an ad for the Woobles. I was feeling optimistic, riding on the high of successfully learning new things in the recent past, and bought Fred the Dinosaur.

The Woobles were able to teach my what two grandmas had given up on. More specifically, the Woobles YouTube channel that I could stop, rewind, slow down, and watch as many times as possible without the tutorials becoming frustrated. Jay hasn't quite picked up crochet yet, but considering the number of times  he had to listen to the tutorials, I have no doubt he could pick up the yarn and go to town.

I tell you what, it's a good thing I'd learned perseverance throughout my lifetime, because trying to pick up this skill was tough. I frogged Fred more times than I could count, but I finally succeeded. Then, I made a second one so Gremlin could have one at each parents' house. I took my new-found crochet confidence and jumped into another project. I decided that since I didn't have the skill when the kids were little, that they were all getting some crocheted critter in their Christmas stockings.

Not even the animals were safe - I started making things for them to wear as well. Tally the Turtle got an Avs sweater, the horses got Christmas stocking caps, L.E.'s dog got a Christmas hat, the cats got witch's hats.

The Gremlin got the bulk of my crocheted critters, of course, and I had a great time making them. 

This was supposed to be a dragon blanket,
but I got overwhelmed and mounted it for Gremlin instead.

After this, I swore I'd never use glow-in-the-dark yarn again.

Once in a while, though, I'd find a project that wasn't for Gremlin, and just enjoyed making little keepsakes.

This was a weekend Halloween project in AZ.
What a treat to sit by the pool in late October to crochet.

I made these little sloths to commemorate
our trip to Costa Rica

There was one crochet project that I started a month or so before Mom and Bill's accident. There is a group of us old bloggers who keep in touch and call ourselves the "Squirrel Brigade". My intent was to make a squirrel for each of the bloggers' households, just as a fun little thing. After the accident, I couldn't bring myself to make more. I tried, but I lost my mojo for that project. Last year, I packaged it up and sent it to Rachel and Mr. Daddy (remember them, from Once Upon A Miracle?) for their second little miracle child.

Grief is dumb sometimes, but I hope their young 'un can enjoy the squirrel.