Crocheting a blanket has a lot in common with writing a novel.

1. In the beginning, you might not know where it’s going, but an inevitable pattern emerges.
2. You toiled in secret for ages, yet it looks a lot like one someone else did last year.
3. The building blocks are all basically the same.
4. It’s never really “done.”
5. You were “inspired” by someone else’s work, but this is all your own.
6. If you were doing it for the money, you’d never break even.
7. Someone might look at it, shrug, and say “I could do that”–but they didn’t.
8. It’s not everyone’s style.
9. No one will ever know what you poured into it.
10. At some level, you really need the praise.
11. No one will ever make the exact same one.
12. The work is thoroughly monotonous.
13. It will be enjoyed briefly by the recipient, then spend eternity on a shelf.
14. Seriously, if people sent YOU a whole pile of them every week, could you judge which was the best?
15. You really don’t care if no one ever gets to see it but you (yeah, right).
16. You’ve lost the thread more times than you care to admit.
17. One loose end and the whole thing falls apart.
18. All you see are those loose threads. You just hope no one pulls on them.
19. Honestly though, one or two dangling threads do not catastrophe spell. Everyone chill out, alright?
20. You’ve been working on the same one all your life.
21. Taken as a whole, it looks pretty impressive.
22. Your family and friends think you’re crazy.
23. Inevitably, the experts say you’re doing it wrong.
24. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who does it. You’ve never heard of them.
25. Outside of some rarefied circles, nobody knows your name.
26. Some people are fans of your work. You wonder why.
27. You have several unfinished ones in a drawer.
28. You probably should not have quit your day job.
29. For this you went to college?
30. You really don’t NEED formal training…
31. Some prefer to do it in groups, others in total isolation.
32. The hard work is tidying up the loose ends.
33. Each little section may be pretty, but it’s the connections that really count.
34. Sometimes you have to unravel and start over.
35. You often repeat yourself, for, um, “effect.”
36. As soon as you finish, you start another one.
37. Your fingers are about to fall off.
38. You can’t believe anyone would criticize it.
39. The structure is comforting, but it can be inhibiting.
40. Once you’re in, you’re stuck with it.
41. Halfway through, you have a better idea.
42. You can pick up where you left off six months ago.
43. You long to work on something else.
44. You spend all day trying to find the right hook.
45. Others are far more prolific.
46. You get better at it as you go.
47. It cracks you up when a young person comes to you for advice on the craft.
48. Once it’s finished, somebody’s going to throw up on it.
49. It’ll look dated real fast.
50. Your heart will stop when you see it in a second-hand shop.
51. It’s more expensive than it looks.
52. You can work on a piece at a time, and sew it together later.
53. It has bits of you woven into it, even if you didn’t mean to.
54. It even smells like you.
55. It can be hard to tell them apart.
56. The world really doesn’t need another one.
57. You can keep adding to it forever if someone doesn’t make you stop.
58. You’ll probably never meet a man that way.
59. When you boil it down, there are basically only two or three different ways it could go.
60. It’s something of an obsession.
61. You’re skeptical of everyone else’s ability to do it, let alone judge it.
62. Everyone has advice.
63. You suspect someone has already done it better.