Lost City crafters pass on skills

By BETTY RIDGE

LOST CITY – Like the simple loops in a crochet chain, crafting skills pass one by one, from one generation to another, from one teacher to one student.

So it happened Tuesday evening, when the Lost City Star Crafters gathered for their first meeting at the Lost City Community building.

A group of women of varying ages and degrees of skill came together with the objective of learning, sharing their skills, and enjoying one another’s company. The group focused on crocheting during their first meeting, but some want to knit, and the direction the organization will take depends on what its members want to learn by doing.

The Tahlequah chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star sponsors the group, but it’s open to anyone who’d like to learn, to teach, to share, and to enjoy the company of others.

“What are you people interested in?” asked Joyce Luna, who served as the unofficial coordinator and instructor for the evening.

“I want to learn how to crochet,” longtime area resident Bonnie Moss replied. “They tried to teach me at my club, but I never did learn.”

“What I thought we’d start out with is making a scarf,” Luna told her.

She and other members brought various sizes of crochet hooks and yarn, while Luna also toted a box full of knitting needles of different sizes. Tuesday night, the knitting needles stayed on the table, while group members focused on the crochet hooks.

Diane Anderson pulled a handful of crochet hooks from her bag and offered them to those who didn’t bring one.

“I have extras. I pick up things at yard sales,” she said.

Moss had tried using a small crochet hook and yarn, and Luna assured her it would be easier using a larger hook and larger yarn.

“If you get it big enough so you can see the stitches, you can understand what you’re doing,” she said. “We’ll start off with a chain and go single crochet, double crochet, triple crochet, learning the basic pattern.

“Grandma Morgan taught me how to go across a pillowcase with crochet when I was a girl, but I’ve forgotten all that.”

Luna told them that after practicing, if they select a pattern, it will tell them what size yarn and crochet hook to use.

She showed them how to make the simple chain stitch, and even demonstrated how to do it just using her fingers. She showed them how to make the first loop and tie a knot.

A good thing about crocheting, as opposed to knitting, is that you don’t have to estimate how much yarn you’ll need for the first row before beginning. You just start and keep going.

They also learned how to find the end inside a ball or skein of yarn, and start from that end.

“I said I’d never do this,” Moss said, shaking her head.

“Never say never, Bonnie,” Jamie Tannehill encouraged her.

“Just make you a loop there, Bonnie,” Luna told her.

“I can’t do this. I’m too old to learn,” Moss replied.

“Oh, yes, you can,” Luna assured her. “Just twist you a loop up there. You’ve got it.”

Soon Moss, along with the others, began to see the results of her work as a crocheted scarf started to take shape.

“You make it look so easy,” Tannehill told Luna.

Christina Large was proceeding rapidly on her project.

“Believe it or not, my dad taught me how to do this,” she said. “I want to learn how to knit. I want to learn how to do hats, and do those little sock bootie things. I like those.”

“While my dad was teaching me how to shoot a shotgun, Christina’s dad was teaching her how to crochet,” Tannehill said, laughing.

“I just kind of taught myself,” said Gina Collins, who was working on a stocking cap.

Large said she wants to polish the crocheting skills her dad helped her begin, then has her eyes on learning to knit.

“These young girls have got it all over me,” Moss remarked. “You all were learning how to do all these things while I was milking all those old cows.”

After each had made a single chain of a certain length, Luna went from crocheter to crocheter, instructing them how to make the basic double crochet stitch.

When there was a mistake, she was there to help correct it.

“You just dropped it. What it is, is it turned upside down on you. Just pull it up and hold it this way. Put it around, get you a loop, and pull it through. Keep your hook turned this way,” she told one crafter.

She told them some people crochet with tiny hooks, even using sewing threat.

“Why would that even occur to anyone?” asked Tannehill.

Luna looked on with pride as the students began to achieve success.

“You’re doing it. You’ve got it,” she said. “Once you get past that first chain, it’s going to be a lot easier. The conformity will come with time.”

Anderson asked which was easier, knitting or crocheting.

“A lot of people are going to tell you that knitting is harder. But once you learn it, I don’t know that it’s easier or harder. I just enjoy knitting more,” Luna said.

She gave the group an assignment: Buy crochet hooks and yarn as needed, go home and practice their basic stitches, and look at patterns they like.

“I’m hoping for a potholder before Christmas, to give as a present to my mama, for her new house,” Tannehill said.

She discovered one thing Tuesday night: Crocheting and other crafts can become addictive.

“My husband isn’t going to like this, because I’m going to want to do this all the time,” she said.