Skill going to waste

When I was 17 years old and my sister found me in Simi Valley after being homeless for nearly a year and let me move in with her I decided that after seeing my first boyfriend Robert crochet that I wanted to learn how to crochet too.  I bought a couple of books about learning crochet and knitting as well as some knitting needles, crochet hooks and some yarn.

I learned how to knit but I never really liked and I learned how to crochet and found it was a lot faster to make something and I could read the directions easily and so I got hooked (pun intended) on crocheting.

Over the next 20 years years I had made many pillows, blankets, lots of coaster, a sweater during the rodney king riots and even a bed for my kitty.  But last year I had to stop because my hands would get numb after only a few minutes of crocheting.  I involuntarily gave it up.

Chips and his moms friend Julia had passed away after Halloween in 2007 and her neice was going through her house and found tons of yarn and gave the majority of it to me knowing that I crochet.  Well, I was very happy to get it all but I knew that I wouldn't have much use for it anymore due to my numbness.  I wasn't exactly sure otherwise I would've rejected it which would have meant it would all go to the trash which would've been a total waste of good yarn so I accepted it.  At Christmas 2007 I brought a lot of the yarn that I didn't care about with me and gave it all to Chips neice and another family member as well as all these knitting needles and crochet hooks.

Well, even though I had a good 20 years of crocheting I'm not ready to give it up because I've been dying to crochet hehe.  Even though I know I shouldn't do it because I don't want to flare up the carpel tunnel syndrome, I'm doing it little bits at a time.  It's not going to hurt if I do little bits at a time.

I just think it's a total waste of a great skill because not a lot of men can or want to crochet.  Some men think that if they crochet they aren't men but lots of men crochet like Rosie Grier the football player, my Uncle Ron who is probably the most masculine man I've ever met crocheted in his earlier years, the private detective on the tv show Pushing Daisies knits and crochets and they are always showing yarn on his desk in his office.  So it's not a skill that is female specific.  But it is a waste of a skill if you can't do it anymore.  I would've liked to be able to do it all year because that is usually the source of christmas presents from me.