Saturday, November 22, 2008

Re-cycling Memories

A few months ago, I picked up a wonderful 3-branch, huge floor lamp - it arcs way up near the ceiling and has three branches that adjust easily to provide a lot of light, especially during winter’s long nights. It was free from someone on my local Freecycle group.

As great as it is, sometimes the glare from the bulbs overhead bother my eyes. Tonight I remembered that during the 40s, many women made crochet or lace lampshades. It dawned on me that I could crochet a round “bottom” for the metal shields for the three bulbs. In those days, I believe the bulbs would have been even hotter than they are today. Maybe not. The main thing is that today, we have more safety built into our products. So I’m going to try to make a thread crochet lacey circle and about a 1-inch “lip” with a drawstring to hold it into place.

Cotton thread should be safest. I have a new spiral energy-saving bulb in one spot, so I know the heat is less there. I’ve been meaning to change the other one - it’s lodged tightly into place. This will be a good reason to try to finally dislodge it and replace it with the energy-saving type.

I’ll use ecru, a nice neutral color. I can probably adapt a doily pattern. This will be a fun project and I’m looking forward to it.

Dear God, thank you for allowing me to live so many years and have memories that can return and be of help to me now.

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