Conference Crochet

Listening AND sitting still has always been a struggle. This is even more difficult in online meetings, so when seemingly everything went online during the pandemic, I really struggled.

One day I couldn't take it anymore. I recognized that I wasn't processing anything from the conference I was listening to because everything in my apartment was distracting. I decided to pick up the crochet project I was working on, thinking maybe if I could keep that little part of my brain busy that likes to get easily distracted, maybe I could focus on the talks a bit better. It was then that I discovered I'm actually able to listen and process MUCH better when my hands are busy.

So when conferences went back to being in-person, I brought my fiber art along with me - especially things that I'm designing as I go (most of the little creatures). If you've seen me at a conference since 2022, you've might have also noticed my crochet...

But I don't always finish a project at the same conference, so if you've ever wondered what I'm making and wanted to see the final product: here you go. 

2025

Purity in Minoritised Languages at the Europa-Universität Flensburg, June 19-21
  • seagull for Flensburg, the hat because some gifted the organiser a hat like this, and a book about "language" with two rules stitched in it (the pages are very small and stitching on crochet is no fun).
Nordfriesland in Kiel II at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, 24 February
  • ​Attended with a poster introducing the ViNoRHM Project and crocheted a bunch of these granny squares, which are going to be a sweater. They're in sweater form now, but the collar, cuffs, and edging are not yet finished... 

2024

Die Soziolinguistik des Nordfriesischen: Spracheinstellungen, -wahrnehmungen, und -gebrauch hosted by Dr. Ruth Kircher from the European Centre for Minority Issues, Flensburg, 1 October. 
  • Since I gave two talks during this one-day workshop, I didn't have much time for crochet, but I did bring along the blue and white shawl I was working on for my mother (you can see it on the table here as I'm looking at the speaker's handout). 
Sprach(en)politik in Deutschland: Perspektiven auf Sprachminderheiten- und Mehrsprachigkeitskonstellationen. Workshop at the Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache. IDS Mannheim. 4-6 September.
  • I only made the jellyfish on the left during the conference, but she's one of three (on the right). 
Historical Sociolinguistics Network (HiSoN) Conference, Zürich, 5-7 June
Haugen Revisited: Theoretical and Empirical Realities of Heritage Communities, Uppsala, 22-24 May
16th Forum for Germanic Language Studies (FGLS) Conference, Cambridge, 12-13 April 
  • If you saw me at any of these, I was working on parts of a hungry caterpillar set that I designed, with a reversible caterpillar/cocoon, and all of the food items from the story which fit inside and can be closed with a drawstring. I made two sets in 2024, one with some fruit dinos and one with some junk food friends, so those also may have made an appearance. I definitely didn't finish this during a conference, but I love the end result so much, I've shared it all. :D 

​2023

15. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Germanistische Sprachgeschichte (GGSG). Universität Passau. 25-27 September
  • The flower hexagons I was crocheting in Passau eventually turned into my office shawl, because I'm always cold.
Historical Sociolinguistics Network Summer School, Amrum, 24-31 July
  • I was sick, I was co-hosting, I fell off the rented bike and hurt my back about 15 minutes in, and I still managed a little crochet while listening to the amazing teachers! There's the panda in the plane, the mini pieces which were swallowed by the giant whale shark (not crocheted at the summer school), and a small black sausage dog. 

2022

Praktiken der Mehrsprachigkeit im Schwedischen Reich (1611–1721): Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf die Rolle des Deutschen. Humboldt Kolleg. Uppsala Universitet. 7-9 April.
  • The event that started it all. I had some yarn for tiny Pokémon with me, but then I forgot my gloves and it snowed. When one of my travel buddies joked I should just crochet myself some real quick, I made them accompany me to a yarn shop and spent most of the workshop designing myself some new mittens - which got put to use during the excursion to Gamla Uppsala!