After her wedding, Ashwini Anil left her hometown Puttur and moved to Bahrain. That was 10 years ago. Despite having had a postgraduate in computer science, she found it difficult to get a job, thanks to recession. Inspired by her mother, Durga Govind, an expert in crochet designing, she decided to take up crocheting. That changed her world and now their products are being used by the poor all over the world.

Ashwini told BM, “My mother is so talented. She does knitting, crochet sewing, embroidery and many other crafts. She used to stitch all our dresses, sweaters and even school bags. I feel proud to say and my sister Anushri and I rarely wore readymade dresses. She has been an inspiration. Though I was not very active in the art world when in Puttur, crochet and art became my world, without even realising how and when. Initially, it was difficult to get the right yarn. Then I started experimenting with plastic as the raw material. I started using waste material like milk bottles and the outcome was attractive. My husband, Anil Dheraje, a project manager, has helped me in every step,” she said.

Her work became an instant hit and she was introduced to Momwise, a group on social media. They were holding an exhibition and she was surprised when she was asked to share her work. Ashwini was later introduced to Chennai-based Subhashri Natrajan who through ‘Mother India Crochet Queens’ (MICQ) was successful in making the largest crochet blanket in the world, measuring 11,148.5 sq metre.

Ashwini and her mother participated in the project along with over 1,000 participants from the country and 13 other countries.

The blankets were donated to the needy last year. The team was not satisfied with this record and they decided to create the world’s largest scarf.

To promote international peace, a group of crochet enthusiasts knitted the world’s longest scarf measuring 14.09 km. The feat was acknowledged by the Guinness World Records.

Ashwini said, for this record, MICQ created about 5400 scarves. 900 of them were sent to Secretary General of United Nations and head of states as a step towards spreading global peace.

Attempting another record, they are now working on huge crochet sculptures.

“The aim is to make the largest display of crochet sculptures and we hope to break the UK record created in 2014,” she said.

source: http://www.bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> News> State / by Deepthi Sanjiv, Bangalore Mirror Bureau / October 28th, 2017