Center of Attention

This morning, I was chauffeur for a friend who had an appointment.  She says it usually takes about an hour and a half, so I carried along my latest yarn project, a nice baby blankie crocheted using the Diagonal Box Stitch of pastels and pale yellow, finely soft 3-ply yarn.
I am on the Decrease sides of the square, meaning that the yellow stripes are showing up nicely on the diagonal.

The waiting room had many folks who seem to be looking for jobs along the bus routes.  Going outside for a smoke was quite important, with anybody out there making sure that somebody else in the room knew the customer number to come get ‘em and not miss their turn.
And the talkers… twitching… restlessness
in the room was unending.

Which is why my crochet comes in so handy.
I would be a pacer if I don’t keep my hands busy.

The pastels blanket was quite an object to get conversations going.  Guys mention knitting, but I would hold up the hook and say what I’m doing is crochet.  One woman said she learned to crochet the last time she ‘did time’ but does not have the money to buy yarn now.
She asked who I am making it for.
I told her it will be donated to a charity crafts booth.
A guy nodded, saying that everybody’ll get good out of it.

When I got to the end of a row, I had to pick up the blanket and arrange it for the return.
The receptionist noticed it then and gave a small smile.

One very tall fella came over, squatted down beside my chair to be able to look right into my face.  I recognize this, I work in classrooms with Special Needs students, so I set down my hook and looked back at him until he could come up with the words.

“Can I touch it?” he asked.

I grinned from ear to ear, held it up, and nodded.

He straightened up again, tall and proud, then reached out his hand and touched it with finger and thumb as if it would break.  I shook it a bit and told him he could grab on, it was good enough for a baby to wear it out.

This seemed to be a signal that anybody could come over and feel its baby soft goodness.  A little parade of jostling shoulders and reaching hands and nodding heads lasted for several minutes until I could settle in again and proceed to add on more crochet stitches.

When my friend came out of the office, she had to wait a minute for me to get all my stuff gathered and put back into the bag.
One guy commented that I must love to do the work, because I sure have a bunch of stuff to keep track of.

As we passed the desk, the receptionist said that my crochet is beautiful, and Thank You for being so kind to share it.

In my own mind, I wonder what I would do if I don’t have such a wonderful hobby to make beautiful things.

~~love and Huggs, Diane