Hours Later, the Yarn Remains

Worked on the cat plush figure today. It is pretty spooky-looking, as it turned out to be about the size of a real cat. One used super bulky yarn, so the figure is about three times the size of the original pattern's suggested size. At about three feet tall, it is not cute. But the chenille yarn feels wonderful, and the color recalls the cat who adopted me many years ago. I guess that is weird, to have an effigy of one's former cat. A lot of these projects go straight to storage, but maybe I'll live with this cat plush and examine my reactions and responses to it in light of the absence of that adorable, real cat. 

What I like about crochet is that it is meditative and absorbing. My skill has developed, or I have improved my technique. The Beckett bag that I produced over a few weeks is very nice. Before that, I made a grocery market bag of cotton yarn with a net effect stitch. Then I made a large tote of super bulky T-shirt yarn. The most challenging item is probably that Beckett-style bag, since it involved increasing and decreasing and was  of a terse pattern at the beginner level of difficulty. The level of difficulty easier than that is the easy level of difficulty. 

A person is hard-pressed to recoup the expenses of crochet. It is impossible because the hours spent on a beginner-level crochet project are always gone. If a person didn't enjoy the process or the mental state of the work, it would be a loss of energy. Also, it seems true that if you give a goodwill gift of a crochet project, it is too personal a gift. For example, who but the creator will enjoy the creepy plush cat figure? 

Maybe one is too harsh a judge of one's effort and intention. A long time ago, in an art charity for homeless people, a wonderful teacher led a class in dollmaking. I was the only guy in the class. The class captivated me. Of course, the figures I produced evoked strange references to magic. That was not the creator’s intention. Adult men, as a rule, just produce strange dolls, perhaps.