Photo by Karin Elton Evelyn Lozenski shows the Easter eggs, shamrocks and valentines that she has crocheted.

MARSHALL

It started when she was working nights for REM in Canby and had to occupy her time with something that wouldn’t make her fall asleep. She knew how to crochet doilies, so she crocheted the night away.

“When I had my work done, I could do anything I wanted so I crocheted from 2:30 a.m. on,” she said.

Many decades later Evelyn Lozenski is still crocheting and gives out her creations as gifts. She crochets seasonal items such as Easter eggs, valentines or shamrocks.

“I made 100 every year to give away,” said Lozenski.

She keeps a ball of crochet yarn in her purse for when she is waiting to see the eye doctor who has been the recipient of many crocheted items.

The finished crocheted pieces get dipped in a thin mixture of white glue and water to stiffen. Then they get stuck with pins on a piece of Styrofoam to keep them straight while they dry out.

She also makes stars.

“Each year there is a different pattern,” she said. “There are 140 different patterns.”

The Christmas star goes with a manger scene. The manger scene gets strung in front of the TV — “I don’t watch TV; I just have it on for the noise,” she said.

She also made her plant accessories, skewers with a wooden figurine on top.

“I took a bandsaw and made 1-inch thick pieces,” she said. “Then I split it and made it into two.”

As the mother of seven children living on a farm north of Porter, Lozenski waited until the youngest one started school before working outside the home. She worked a night job and then slept during the day while the children were at school. Her husband’s name was Theodore “Ted” Lozenski.

Now a resident of Boulder Estates, she hangs her crocheted stars, hearts and angels in the window. Others are hanging in spots all over her apartment such as on her prized grandfather clock. She even has 16 angels in her bathroom.

Lozenski said her eyesight is failing now so her crocheting days may be over.