My religious, eccentric, lop-sided, rock-around-in-your-undies-&-singlet, and environmental before his time, Onkel Anton, married the lovely Irish Evelyn in around 1978. He was somewhere between 47 and 50, she 35, and me, about 14.

She insisted we kids put salutations aside and call her by her first name, something that sat oddly with our 1970s sensibility and careful migrant parenting rules.

Evelyn was completely engaging to us – she was interesting, talked to us as though we were adults and extended familial arms as though we were a perfect biological fit with her. We loved her then (and I still love love love her now).

It’s worth mentioning at this point she taught me and my sisters how to do Irish dancing. While we weren’t as fleet footed as her Irish kin, we gave it a crack and had a stack of gawky fun.

It’s also worth mentioning I come from a family of knitters, sewers, crocheters (not a dancer in sight). Since as early as I can remember I was cross stitching gingham, or knitting squares for a poncho, quite often in the car without seatbelts, alongside non-carsick siblings, knitting ponchos in other colours. Sometimes (alarmingly) sitting alongside same, we continued our concetrated and quiet clicketyclack in church (!).

Evelyn knew of our juvenile and possibly extraordinary-for-our-age skill with a knitting needle, knitting Nancy & crochet hook, and recruited me to crochet collars for Irish dancing competition dresses, for five bucks a pop. What a deal! A complex pattern that did heaps for my brain and confidence, tools and materials supplied, plus payment at the end for something that was actually needed. My dream job.

So, that’s where the crochet really took off. And while intensive at the time, the skill languished in favour of technical writing and work in IT for more than twenty years. That is, until now.

I’ve just crocheted two floral scarves and I’m thrilled the myalin coating for that particular memory is sound and strong; it just needed a bit of coaxing to get to the fore.

OK, so crochet is back. How’s the myalin around Irish dancing moves? Let’s see…

…double treble & back, double treble & back, and a one and a two and a three and a four, and a one two three, one two three, one two three, one two three, step treble back, double treble and back.