Dada days

Discovering a new skill

Threading up, going back to go forwards, making mistakes. Going back laughing. Go ahead and get the hang of it. To feel the pleasure of moving forward and, above all, of learning, of mending something before making a mistake.

Author: Aina Coll

Photographer: Jaume Oliver

A thread, a hook, a little skill and, if the latter is scarce, an extra dose of patience. This is all you need to enjoy a knitting technique as traditional and at the same time as current as crochet. We saw this first-hand in a workshop we found on Dada Days, a platform that promotes creativity, live and direct, at a time when almost everything happens through a screen.

They say that crochet – which we thought was born in France before discovering a theory that points to Arabia – improves brain connection, reduces stress and chronic pain, and that, as if that were not enough,  it promotes emotional well-being. More than compelling reasons to sign up for the experience that Lucy Ehrlich gives at Mozaikon (Sant Feliu, 17) and which, as she herself defines, is not exactly 'Your Grandma's Crochet Workshop'.

The space chosen by Lucy is small and intimate, and in it reigns a large table full of threads of different colors, crochet hooks and hair ties, because today we are going to personalize our own scruntchy with our hands -or, at least, we are going to try-.

As soon as we arrive, and after a lively chat with the rest of the participants, we choose the material between mohair wool, cotton and linen, and among an infinity of colors that can be freely combined with each other. Cautiously, we chose to combine two colors: one with two shades of blue and the other beige and green, and we bet on wool because, let's not fool ourselves, it is the most suitable material for inexperienced hands.

Equipped with everything we need, Lucy begins, expertly but very calmly, to explain the crochet technique: first we turn the hair tie with the yarn and, once the circle is completed -not without some fun complications- we shape it through technical tricks that Lucy teaches us.

Threading up, going back to go forwards, making mistakes. Going back laughing. Go ahead and get the hang of it. To feel the pleasure of moving forward and, above all, of learning, of mending before making a mistake. Observing how our creation takes shape and being proud when we reach the width we want, outline the edge and close, now, the piece, our piece, unique and created with our hands, becomes one of those experiences that you enjoy because, stitch by stitch, it makes you connect with the here and now and, above all,  explore and expand a skill that, until today, you didn't know you had.

Satisfied, we share with the group our scrunchies and admire the expertise of the most advanced in the field while we taste some sweets that Lucy has prepared for us. Who knows if in the future we will know how to make a ten-colored scrunchie. And what does it matter, in reality, what matters is the first step, it is today.

The workshop has been enjoyable and fun thanks to the atmosphere that has been created between strangers, but it has also made us think about the enjoyment that comes with daring to try what you have always had in mind or even what you thought was not for you. Sitting in front of a pottery wheel and getting your hands dirty. Kneading bread. Coloring with watercolor. And if craftsmanship survives, it is due, in part, to how it makes us feel. Don't hesitate: your grandmother, who crocheted entertainingly and happily, was right.