Last week Victorita had to go back to the hospital so I decided that for class we would do something fun! I had been wanting to learn how to make dreamcatchers for a while now but I don’t know how to crochet. Luckily I found some links on Pinterest that seemed simple enough. I made one last week to test it out and since it turned out ok I decided that Victorita and I could make some together for class. We always have so much fun together, even when we’re in the hospital!

A little history about dreamcatchers: They originated from the Ojibwe people and were gradually adopted into other nations. In some Native American cultures, dreamcatchers are usually a willow hoop with some sort of web or net in the middle. Legend says that there was a Spider Woman (Asibikaashi) who took care of the people of the land. As the people branched out, it became impossible to protect them so magical webs were weaved to protect them. The dreamcatchers are hung above the bed and bad dreams are caught in the web and destroyed with the morning light.

Making the dreamcatchers is quite time intensive. The first day we worked for about 2.5-3 hours and V didn’t get to finish hers. After that though we started to get a little faster and I was able to play around with different designs. I had seen one that had a crescent moon shape but I couldn’t find instructions so I had to play around with it a bit. I think it came out ok.

On our last day in the hospital I tried a different design again making a star design in the center. Again it could use a little work but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It’s my favorite though because the hoop is covered in yellow which is my favorite color! I’ve been practicing my crocheting so hopefully in the future I can do some that have a more complicated center web.