Lady Adventure

Something I Sort Of Aspire To But Don't, Really

Today we're supposed to write about something we aspire to. Some skill we'd like to learn. Well, you all know about my thwarted desire to knit socks, so that kind of put the kibosh on today's rant. By the way, many thanks for all the comments. I now know that I'll have a career chronicling the adventures of my stickwoman, if the adventures of the gingerbread woman don't pan out. Thank you for all the advice: Quinn - I think I will start with toddler socks. And Shelley, I'll progress on to socks that I intend to keep for myself ... Thanks for the tip with the Soak Wool Wash, Marushka. Extra strength will be needed to remove all the naughty words from the stitches, but if the cursing hasn't felted them, the washing certainly won't.

Anyway, what do I aspire to? It's a tricky one. What I kind of aspire to is Irish crochet. Theoretically, in my head, I want to aspire to this. In practice, there's no reason why I shouldn't do it, except ... I couldn't be bothered. I like colours and symmetry and order and form. Irish crochet - in the traditional sense - is not really any of these things. Okay, symmetrical maybe, but in many respects it was the forerunner to monotonal freeform crochet and freeform crochet makes me itch with desire to line it up to something and even out the edges.

The funny thing is this: my sister Emily Gingerbread - who apparently looks so much like me that non-family members often have difficulty telling us apart (if I walk into a shop after she's been there, shop assistants ask if I've forgotten something) - is quite a dab hand at Irish crochet. Despite our negligible physical similarity (I'm a foot taller than her, people!!), our crochet styles are very different. Therefore I don't feel a pressing need to really try Irish crochet because my doppelgänger is already doing and doing it so well.

Don't believe me? Well, as a starry-eyed youth (i.e. before she had four kids, bless her cotton socks), she made her own wedding tunic. So in answer to today's question - what do I aspire to? - the answer is this: