Mrs. Crafting insists on wearing a cosy woollen shawl on top of her leather jacket. Otherwise she would probably get a cold when she rides her BMW R25/3 to the crochet club. Mrs. Crafting loves everything about herself, including her age. Because she knows that the plain old doesn’t have to be the plain old boring. I guess she’s right.
A bit of history.
Mrs Crafting is my alter-ego. While some kids pretend to be
flying heroes chasing baddies, I used to sit by my grandmother watching her
stitch her way through immaculate white crochet towels. I didn’t dream about
becoming a Super Nan or anything like that, but I guess granny stuff just captured
my imagination.
However, although I was fascinated by traditional Portuguese
crochet, I was also a teenager in the late 90’s: hiding a crochet hook inside the
pocket of my guitar case and eager to lead my own rebellion – even if that
meant using plastic instead of yarn, or stitching free style – how sad is that?
By the age of 16 I finished my first big crochet project, a
tote bag made of plarn. And some
intermittent projects followed (handbags mostly). I was never too serious about
it; crochet was a reflex, a vice, something to entertain you if there is a bad
film on telly, or when the weather too bad to go out.
Around 2010, while working in advertising, I began to come up with more "crochet ideas" and to stitch more
often, that’s when my alter ego took over my spare time.
Today crochet is definitely a part of my life. Sometimes I
go through unproductive phases, but I always go back to my crafts box. I hope
it stays like that.
Written and Crafted by Catarina Azevedo Martins.
