I used to do crochet on sets, when we had down time and I did not have books to read about production or it was convenient.  Sometimes it was just not possible to carry the material or the conditions were not appropriate. 

I found it one of the best ways to pass the time.  I have made shawls, scarves, hats, and hot pads.

  I don’t believe in hobbies so I don’t count crochet as one.  I think in part because I grew up in a household where well everything was made to be work.  I felt like I was supposed to grow up and live for a job.  (Of course now I am determined to make sure that my WORK is LOVE to me.)  I do crochet more to make things I can give away or use.  I gave these pair of skulls to a friend who helped me when I had cancer.  He was a punk rocker surfer type so it fit him.  I found the pattern in a book about crochet called “Happy Hooker.”  Seriously that is the name of the book. 

I prefer crochet to knitting because all you need is yarn, a hook, scissors (though you can crochet sometimes for hours without them), and it helps to have stich counters (little plastic loops to help you keep track of your stich numbers), and a device to hold the thread should you need to stop so it does not unravel (I have a metal loop that looks like a big safety pin for this).

I know it sounds ODD but I really don’t like the idea of hobbies.  I feel like it belittles the things I LOVE to do as if they can be put off.  Having had CANCER twice I have discovered that people trying to convince me to live for tomorrow are not in the right healthy mindset.  It is that attitude of working today to be happy tomorrow that I think is breaking apart the fabric of AMERICA.  We have become a country that strips people’s rights away without considering the ramifications.  Can you make someone work hard for something they don’t love?  And if the person knows the difference between right and wrong, never broke the rules, but has finally reached a point where they feel good and confident and then you say- guess what- you can’t do anything you like for work but must just go for the work with the most money.

What does this have to do with crochet- I’d rather do crochet though it is tedious than work in an office or in the legal field.  I don’t think I would care about winning for my clients, or becoming a Partner in a firm even if it meant a house in Beverly hills or a condo in Thailand.  I would not want to trade my freedom.  I once worked for a law firm and I had paid for an acting class.  It was a TEMP job and my boss was going on a trip for a month in a few days.  I did not have a great deal of work to do, just clean up their address book and prep it for their trip.  Well my boss knew about the class and instead of saying you can finish this in the morning, she wanted me to stay and finish it before I left.  It was 5 pm at night.  I knew what she wanted would take 8 hours.  I ended up leaving her a note and telling her sorry, NO I can’t.  I finished it the next day.  It took me 6 hours to complete.  If I had stayed the night before, taking in the fact I was tired- I would have finished after midnight, and would have been ALONE in an office building in Century City and then would have had to make my way home alone and I was fresh and new to Los Angeles.  Keep in mind this was a temp job and was coming to an end, or they would have let me stay to work for the next few weeks while they were on their trip and I would have just answered the phone and handled any emergencies that happened.  I left the job in three days.  I don’t regret it- why?  Because I wanted a LIFE.  My family keeps saying I did not have one- but to me acting and working in the arts is HAVING A LIFE.  I would never sell myself to a law firm because I would want to do theater and make films and do webisodes and KEEP acting and eventually I would want  a career in film production and making movies and shows so I could LEAVE something behind.  Is isn’t that what we are all here for- to create something that says “I walked here” not just carbon foot prints that say “Hey I used up all this oxygen up, and filled up all these garbage bags.”  And I believe WE EACH have a sense of who we are and maybe in the fabric of our make up is ingrained what we are supposed to do here- going against THAT is what can drive a person to insanity. 

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