Handwork

Handwork has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  

One of the first projects I can remember is embroidering a set of seven white, cotton dish-towels which Grandma and Grandpa gave me. The kind with a full-skirted, sun-bonneted girl going about the activities assigned to each day of the week. Though I now laugh over my color choices, they are still very fun!

Sewing began with my first quilt made of scrap squares at age seven and included more difficult sampler quilt blocks and clothing in the years to follow. 

Finishing a quilt involved learning to hand-stitch it on a big quilting frame. Those were special days spent with mom, sisters, grandmas, and ladies from church. I can still spot my huge, uneven stitches on that first quilt tucked in as a cosy layer on my bed. 

My sisters and I got lots of practice quilting, though, as we loved working on each of the quilts Grandma made for her 18 grandchildren's high-school graduations. The one she lovingly pieced for me is also on my bed this year.

Another early memory involves spinning wool from our own sheep after helping to sheer, wash, tease, and card the fleeces. My first yarn was rather lumpy, but oh, how fun! I would love to get back to spinning some day.

Then came learning to knit with our wool (spun by Mom.) My first knitting at a very young age was a black scarf with red stripes (we dyed with Cool-Aid) as a Christmas gift for little Elsa. Mom had to fix that project several times even though it was just plain knitting. And Elsa had to keep me company as I worked alone in our room by playing outside my closed door.  She also had to make enough noise not to hear my knitting needles and make any guesses at her Christmas gift. :-) It was a successful surprise! 

My next knit scarf, begun at age thirty-one, was the project that pushed me beyond just "knit and pearl" and opened up a whole new love of knitting. Knit in a lace pattern from wool bought at an outdoor market in Russia, this took months to complete at my beginner's pace.

Instead of sitting outside the door to keep me company this time, Elsa and I were stuck on the same couch for months. I couldn't ask for a better companion in illness... or a better knitting instructor.  Her patience was amazing as I regularly shoved a mess of knitted lace at her to "fix" before I slowly learned to do that myself.

Crocheting came harder at a young age. It was tried and dropped once or twice before I finally pushed through my first doily... and was hooked. (Oops, that turned out to be a pun.) Doilies, hats, animals, shawls, blankets, hangers...the options seem nearly endless.

           

   

                

Throw in some weaving, some rug-hooking (learned along the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia, Canada), and a couple other odds and ends of handcrafts, and you'll begin to see why I could rarely understand how my peers could ever be "bored." :-)

I'm so grateful that our Creator gave us the urge and ability to be creative as well!