Surprise Crochet Again

New Girl is a show that I feel like I should like, but the few times I've caught an episode, it just doesn't do it for me.  Granted, this may be because I only tend to watch the episodes that appear to have a particular interest of mine.  Case in point, the very first time I decided to watch it was because the episode featured handbells, and I was in a handbell choir when I was in high school.  And the main reason for this post, an episode from a couple of weeks ago that featured Jess and her friends having crochet time:

I love that it is explicitly called crochet time in the episode, and crochet hooks are definitely being used.  All the stuff they're working on appears to be crocheted, although I'm not entirely sure what any of them are making.  And then Zooey Deschanel has to ruin it by knitting.

Keep crochet time pure, Jess!

While working at the library the other day, I noticed The Borrowers on the return cart, and since I knew the new Studio Ghibli movie, The Secret World of Arietty, was based on the book, and since I had never read the books when I was a child, I decided to give it a look.  Imagine my surprise and delight when crochet was mentioned on the very first page.  The book starts with the framing device of the story of the Borrowers being told to a girl named Kate by her elderly relation, Mrs. May, while they work on crocheting squares for a quilt.  Kate mentions losing her crochet hook, even though she knows exactly where she left it, and this reminds Mrs. May of the little creatures her younger brother told her he saw, back when they were children.  I admit, I only finished reading the book to see if crochet was mentioned again, and while it was never part of the Borrowers' story, it did show up again in the framing device near the end (they finished all the squares).  I also read the second book, partly because I knew that the Ghibli movie involved some of it (or so I guessed from the trailer) and partly to see if crochet came up again.  And it did, but only as part of the recap from the first book.  I don't know if crochet shows up in any of the adaptations (of which there are more than I thought), but as most of them appear to disregard the framing device, I highly doubt it.

And while I'm talking about crochet in unexpected places, I'd like to point out the Handmade Ryan Gosling tumblr, which is part of the Ryan Gosling Hey Girl thing (is it a thing?  I only know of one other tumblr with this format, with a library theme), for crafts of all kinds, including crochet: