I have so many passions in life but the biggest two by far has to be ears and crochet! During office hours I work as an audiologist, but when I close the practice door behind me, my hands start to itch for my crochet hooks!

I take my crochet works-in-progress everywhere with me, but find that I constantly have to explain what I’m doing. Crochet? they would ask slightly bewildered. But isn’t that something that old people do? Ag, I sigh after the umpteenth commentary, why don’t you just call me Ouma Ralie? (ouma=granny).

And so the Benjamin Button of crochet is born: Ouma Ralie. She is young, but she has an old soul. She has a passion for the tradition of crochet, but she likes to learn new techniques and innovative new applications for crochet. She uses bright, playful crochet hooks and colourful new yarns, but sometimes she takes her mom’s worn crochet hooks from a little wooden box and crochets with no 8 crochet cotton. She is just as comfortable between the crochet club ladies in the retirement home as she is with the young kids eagerly learning the art of crochet.

In a nutshell, Ouma Ralie is everybody’s crochet granny!

PS: I cannot talk about my love of crochet without thinking about my mom, who taught me the art of crochet. She was one of those amazing women who could do everything. Had she been alive today, she would have been my proudest supporter!