I don’t exactly know what made me pick up crocheting again. I am guessing it has something to do with my three-week trip to Japan where I was exposed to way too many beautiful vintage-y doilies in zakka shops. I came home and felt the urge to pick up the crochet hook and learn how to make granny squares.
Last week, I popped by Golden Dragon in People’s Park Centre and bought myself several balls of yarn and a couple of crochet hooks. Oh my gawd, it has been YEARS since I last visited People’s Park. Walking around in that neighbourhood dredged up so many memories of my childhood days spent in People’s Park Complex with my mother and her friends, shopping for fabrics to make clothes. Her clothes, not mine.
As a kid, I could never understand why my mother refused to buy ready-made clothes from Metro or OG, and insisted on going to the dress-maker armed with fabrics from her People’s Park shopping spree. In those days, I deemed People’s Park to be such an un-cool place and resented having to spend any time there watching my mother bargain for her fabrics.
Thirty years later, I realise that just like my mother, I also love shopping for fabrics. (It is scary how much I resemble my mother as I grow older.) I could have spent the entire day in Nippori, wandering in and out of the fabric shops with delight. Heck, I could have spent half a day in Tomato happily, if not for a grumpy husband who could not fathom why he was sitting on a bench in a fabric town in Tokyo waiting for his wife, when he could be elsewhere that was more fun. Like Omotesando.
Anyway, I digressed. I came home from Golden Dragon and glued myself to the computer, watching crocheting tutorials on Youtube. So here I am, halfway through crocheting a baby blanket for a friend who just had her 5th kid. Yes, FIVE kids. She deserves a silver medal at the National Day awards. Instead of tea, I opted for some whiskey to keep me going.
