Crachit: the art of not starting over

I don’t crochet. I crachit (Krah-ch-it). It’s the term I made up to describe my own twist on crochet, because what I do with yarn and a crochet needle is definitely not traditional. So yes, this is now the official word I’ll be using anytime I talk about my yarn adventures.

My neighbor says, “Crochet with me!”

I say, “I don’t crochet.”

She says, “It’s so easy! Get the starter bunny on Amazon. The directions are simple. We’ll both make it!”

Next thing I know, I’m sitting at my kitchen counter, scanning a QR code to launch crochet directions for my Woobles Bunny.

There are stitches. There are rows. There is counting. None of this screams fun to me, but I’m in it to win it. I’ll try anything once, and as an Enneagram 7, I’m not about to miss out on a potential adventure.

So, I stitched. There were rows. There was counting. I had all the elements, but somehow, my bunny didn’t look like the tutorial. Why did I have so many more stitches? I remembered my neighbor once told me that when she makes a mistake, she pulls out the entire row to fix it.

Um, no. I had just spent hours tying yarn into little knotty rows. I was not about to undo all that. Nope. Not gonna happen.

So, I pushed forward. I used the stitches I learned to bring my bunny back on track. And decided instead of sitting upright like the tutorial, my bunny was going to be laying down. Or, in bunny speak, loafing.

And that’s how the Crachit technique was born. Founded by yours truly. It’s not about undoing what you’ve already done, it’s about moving forward and creating something new.

And then it hit me. Of course I made that decision in the middle of an off-count row. That’s exactly what I do in real life too. I don’t make it perfect, far from it. I make it the best I absolutely can. I don’t deny what went wrong or try to erase it. I just make the best of it and keep going.

I crachit. I make something unique. One-of-a-kind. I could never make two of the same or fill an order for someone, it would always be a surprise masterpiece.

My family and I have learned to love my crachit creations. A pumpkin pillow that was supposed to be a large sphere. A large plush turtle and a small plush turtle that were meant to be twins. A seal that… well, looks like a seal, but not like the one on the box.

And we love them. We love them because they’re not like the others. Because they’re different. Because I didn’t undo the messes or mistakes, I made something out of them.

So don’t erase your messes, friends. They happened. They’re part of the story. Instead, just crachit. Crachit and move forward. Make something beautiful and unique that’s just yours. And no one else's.

Sidenote: go ahead and google the Woobles Bunny, cute, right? But can you imagine a world without my little crachited loaf? The world needs you, friends. :-)