Hooked for Life, My Crochet Story
- Angela Bruce
- Mar 26
- 4 min read
Hooked for Life – My Crochet Story
I was about nine years old when I first became determined to learn how to crochet. I remember constantly nagging my mother, asking her over and over again to teach me. She ignored my requests, probably thinking it was just a passing phase that I would soon forget about. But I didn’t. One day, I went through her stack of needlework supplies and found a ball of yarn and a crochet hook. I took them to her, placed them on the table, and said, “Please teach me.” She looked at me and asked, “Are you serious?” I replied, “Yes,” and in that moment, it was clear she had no choice but to teach me.
Learning to crochet came naturally to me. It wasn’t difficult at all; I took to it like a duck to water. Living on a farm meant there wasn’t always much to do, especially during school holidays, and before long, my brothers became curious. They watched me and decided they wanted to learn too. So together, we started making granny squares. None of them were perfect, some were bigger, some smaller, but we joined them all together anyway. In the end, we didn’t quite make a neat square blanket, but we created a medium-sized throw made up of all our efforts, and to us, that was enough.
The following school holiday brought a new challenge. There wasn’t money to buy more yarn for a young girl still learning, but I wanted to improve. So I frogged the entire blanket my brothers and I had made the previous holiday. I unraveled every stitch and started again, this time working more carefully and neatly. The result was a much better blanket, and I proudly gave it to my Ouma Summers.
During one of my many visits with Ouma Summers and my Aunt Ella Summers, my aunt noticed my enthusiasm for crocheting. She decided it was time to take my skills further and told me she would teach me how to crochet with fine cotton. At first, I didn’t understand the difference. I thought crochet was simply crochet, but I quickly learned how wrong I was. She gave me a ball of Coats No. 8 crochet cotton and a matching hook and instructed me to crochet the entire ball into chain stitches. When I finished, she made me do it again. Only once she was satisfied that my tension was even, that each stitch looked the same, and that I was comfortable with the movement of my hands did she allow me to move on. She was a tough teacher, but she knew exactly what she was doing.
Once she was happy with my work, she brought out a thick file filled with crochet patterns and asked me to choose one that interested me. I selected a trellis pattern with the word “bread” worked into it. That was where I learned to read a pattern properly and where I learned the importance of frogging when something wasn’t right. I made the doily for my mother, and for many years she used it when serving bread at the dinner table. It was a proud moment for me.
As time went on, I didn’t just continue crocheting. I mastered the skill. At school, crochet was part of our curriculum for the year, and our class was required to make three doilies for a dressing table. The teacher, however, did not know how to crochet. By then, I had already developed confidence in my ability, and I found myself stepping in to assist. I helped guide my classmates, showing them how to hold the hook, how to form their stitches, and how to keep their tension even. It was the first time I truly realized that what I had learned could be passed on to others.
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From that point on, I was completely hooked. Crochet became more than just a skill, it became part of who I am. I have never stopped crocheting, and today I find myself teaching others in much the same way my Aunt Ella taught me. She was a tough teacher, but her lessons shaped me, and they continue to live on through the way I share this craft with others.
Later in life, I found myself helping my mother-in-law as well. She would often come to me with patterns that seemed confusing or stitches that felt too difficult to manage. I assisted her in understanding how to read patterns and how to work through those challenging stitches, giving her the confidence to continue her own crochet journey. It was a full-circle moment, once the learner, now the teacher.
Crochet isn’t just something I do.
It’s a thread that runs through my life, connecting my
past, my family, and the joy I now share with others.
Learn to crochet with me by registering for my crochet lessons on line for Free
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