My mom taught me to crochet, with fine thread, as soon as I
could hold a hook and maneuver the thread. We made lace edgings, the Love Knot,
around the hems of handkerchiefs. It was all uphill from there.
In the 40s, during the war years, she was a stay-at-home
mom. This didn’t mean my folks didn’t need extra income. She went after
anything that required her using her hands.
One time, fabric high-heel pumps with rhinestone designs on
the vamp were the trend. She answered a newspaper ad (no cells or tablets,
etc., back then) and for months, I watched her hand-sew rhinestones according
to the patterns they sent her. Then she carefully packed the pieces of fabric
(they were attached to the shoes at the factory) and shipped them back and waited
patiently for her check.
Another time, for a few years, the thing was hand-embroidery
at the tops of machine-knitted baby rompers. She had to embroider, with yarn,
little ducks or chickens at the tops, in an upside down arc, beneath the necks
of the rompers. She was a smart cookie, my mom. She got a piece of cardboard
and made notches where each duck or chick had to go, and put a pencil dot at
the notch. Her cuties were always perfectly aligned.
Still another time, the read-the-Lord’s-Prayer
necklace-crosses were the rage. She carefully inserted and glued the bead
inside the center hole. She tried to let us help - there were a LOT of these to
do. But we kids were just a little too young. We kept putting them in backwards
and you had to turn around the cross to read the prayer inside. After
losing/tossing a dozen or so, she wouldn’t let us help on those any longer.
There was no limit to what she would try to do with her
hands. Her strongest love and passion was a toss-up between knitting and
crocheting. Oh, and sewing machine projects.
So I guess my 75-year-old self has a good reason for still
being willing to try new crafts, new projects, new things. Yep, I come by it
naturally.
Shoot, I think I’ve become my mother!
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