“Mom, I want to get you a Mother’s Day cupcake.”
“How nice! Why don’t you ask your father if you guys can go do that?”
(She asks, he says yes.)
“We’re going to go get a Mother’s Day cupcake… for you to share with me.”
Aha. Now I see. Heh.
Six years ago, when my daughter was two, she was at a local preschool which was doing a Mother’s Day thing. Handprints on cards, pompom caterpillars, I don’t really remember what it was. The day after they’d done this, but before they’d given the crafts to us, I heard the other moms talking.
“Jordan couldn’t keep it a secret, he just had to tell me.”
“I know! Haley was the same way, she blurted it right out.”
“Kids this age just can’t keep things secret, can they?”
And they all laughed knowingly. Gosh, kids say the darndest things.
I was so angry I was literally seeing red. We were learning about Emily’s problems and figuring out what it all meant. The other moms didn’t know, since we didn’t socialize. My daughter hadn’t breathed a peep about anything they were doing in class, because she didn’t talk the way theirs did. How dare these mothers sit and make light of their children’s ability to communicate with them. I would give anything in the world for my daughter to spill the beans on something. These women didn’t know how lucky they were. I wanted to strangle them for the good fortune they had, all unknowing. (Yes, some months later I did go on drugs for depression.)
That feeling really stayed with me, obviously, and it did rear its head again from time to time, lessening as I came to terms with my child’s differences.
Last night in bed, my daughter told me, “I have something to give you tomorrow for Mother’s Day.”
“Do you?”
“Yes, it’s a secret.”
Six years late, but she got there. My heart is very full.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there.
I brought a silk hanky (a silk cocoon spread out into a thin square) to the Brownie presentation and stretched it way out so the girls could see how strong and long the silk was. Because it was going to be difficult to store in that form, I decided to go ahead and spin it.
Wow. Just wow. I’m stunned at how fine a thread it can make. No wonder they used to use this for parachutes. This stuff just does not break. Mark this as something else I want to tackle when I get better.
Since I had that spinning presentation the other day, I took that as my cue to go back up to Greensboro that morning and get more supplies. For… uh… the presentation. Yeah, that’s it. Not for me. Ahem.
Anyway, I picked up some Strauch hand cards. As I cleaned up my spinning area this morning, I decided to take some of the little bits of wool that the girls had used and discarded and try to card them into something else.
I took some of the bits and put them on the card. I did line the fibers up better after this picture. I also added more red from the bag.
Bring me the eyebrows of Bozo the Clown! I did two cards worth. The thing in the center is a cardboard circle that I use for making my Jayne hat pompoms. I used it as a diz, drawing the wool through the center hole until it was an attenuated wool snake. Later, I did another card, but didn’t blend it as thoroughly, so that I would get more little flecks of this and that. That was so I could ply the single with something similar to itself.
I overspun the singles like crazy, since I’m trying to break my habit of underspinning, or not giving the yarn enough twist. The plied yarn, though, is reasonably balanced. It hangs like you see on the left, with just a little twist. Good enough!
This was a really fun way to tone down the super-bright bits of fluff. I’m glad I got the cards, and I look forward to learning more about them and improving!
Another gift I made for the Jar O’ Joy. Three glass beads and a sterling silver headpin and earhook. Voila, an angel. My recipient spoke a lot in her profile about how much her church and her faith meant to her, so I thought this would be a nice item to recognize that.
I finally added Statcounter to http://www.wearwithstyle.com so that I can see where people are coming from. No big surprises in terms of the sites that are linking to me, but it is neat to see the geographical locations the hits originate from. I’ve only had the counter up for a couple of days, so I’m enjoying playing with it as a new toy. Five continents were represented yesterday. Firefly fans really are everywhere!
On the Jayne hat front, I’m surprised that more Serenity screenings haven’t asked for charity hats. Some have, and I’m glad I’ve been able to accommodate everyone who’s asked so far. I’m about to finish off St. Louis’s and send it along to them. That should get me caught up through April, and then I can no longer put off the black purses that the Huntersville lady asked for. Le sigh.
Knits up for: TX, MO, and NC
Now that the Jar O’ Joy has gotten to its destination, I wanted to show a new craft that I included in the jar.
I have a little 2″x2″ loom made by Buxton Brooks called a Weavette. I’ve had it for a while, but this it the first time I’ve made something assembled from it instead of little squares. There was a tutorial for this project in the winter 2005 Spin-Off by this author, who has a website here. The loom came with the book pictured and excellent instructions on its use.
This is the flower I made with it. I wove two little squares out of leftover Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed color 02 (red), then pulled a couple of the center threads to make them pucker up into a more flowery shape. I stacked them on top of each other and tied the center threads into place. The leaf is another square made out of leftover Noro Kureyon, folded over into a paralellogram and tied to the flowers. I stitched a few rows of yellow Baby Ull for the center. The whole thing is sewn to a pin back. U.S. penny, British penny, and Canadian penny for scale. (Great Britain, why is your cent piece larger? Whaddya think you’re better than us?) This whole project was very quick and easy to do.
It occurred to me after finishing the flower that this would be an excellent way to use up those tiny bits of handspun that aren’t long enough for anything else. I may be doing that in the near future.
By the way, we still do have some Girl Scout cookies available. Get ’em while you can!
Mammoth post on Brownie spinning, cute nerds, and petroleum-laced yarn.
But first, I can report that my neighbor took the basket, smiled, and retreated into his house. It was a very brief interaction. I think I might have caught him in the middle of something. Sorry to disappoint.
My co-leader is still sick with mono, and I don’t want to cancel another meeting, so I’m going solo tomorrow night! I’ve asked another parent to stay and help out, so hopefully someone will step up for that.
Since I’ve got one night’s notice to put together a program, I’m pulling out the big guns! Yes, it’s spinning time. I’m going to bring fiber, drop spindles, and the spinning wheel. We’ll talk about fiber, pass some around, and try spinning a little just by twisting it. Then we’ll break off into pairs with drop spindles. One girl will draft the fiber, the other will keep the spindle going. Then they’ll switch. Then they can have a turn at the wheel. We’ll see how it goes.
I’ve found some sites with good ideas about spinning programs. I may ask in
Contents:
1 DVD To Catch a Thief
1 tin Penguin Caffeinated Mints (My husband likes these too)
1 bag Original Juan Hot Popcorn
1 bag Dilworth Coffee Organic Lila’s Rain
6 assorted Mamma Says biscotti. These have little fortunes inside them.
A thank you note. This is on a notecard I got from Megan Marshall in Raleigh yesterday.
How’s it look? Anything else?