Commentary

Time to pass around some more awards -and keep them moving too, folks!

This one came to me today from Ann Clemmons of A Nice Place in the Sun. Ann says this award is for commenters who visit frequently, leave comments from time to time that often keep her going. Well, I may visit daily but I don't ALWAYS comment even though I probably should. But some days, if I don't comment, that doesn't mean I wasn't there, doesn't mean I agree or don't agree -it's more that some days, my brain and fingers just don't feel like talking I guess. Silence of the Pinkys strikes me every now and again.

Of course, considering the fact that I have been known on occasion to practically write my own blog post in the comments section every now and again, maybe we can all be thankful when my fingers do become quiet, can't we?

This week, I've been a bit on the quiet side for the most part. Been trying to squeeze in some more time to work on my embroidery projects and now, I have one side of the green table-topper tablecloth completed. I love working on this item because it only uses one color floss -white -so I don't have to constandly be looking at the chart to make sure I have the right color floss going into the right box on the design on the fabric. Even though I only work now with stamped cross stitch, I can still muck up a design by getting my colors and placement of stitches in the wrong holes!

I generally enjoy various crafts -sewing, knitting, crochet and yes, embroidery -but I am not necessarily all that good at any of those crafts. I can manage but am far from an expert, far from being the meticulous crafter that EVERYTHING has to be exactly right; perfect -know what I mean?

When my two younger kids were small, I took a course in sewing with knits -learning various secrets and tips about how to make patterns (a specific type pattern that is) from the "Stretch 'n' Sew pattern assortment and as such, for many years, I made a lot of knit shirts for the kids and for myself. When Mandy was a pre-schooler and even in her early grade school years, I made a goodly number of outfits for her -little jumpers, a few dresses, slacks and such. One year, I even made each of the kids their Christmas outfits -the girls got matching floor-length dresses of a dark emerald green velveteen and I made my son a three piece corduroy suit of a pale green shade. I have never been a big fan of putting zippers in clothing -still am not -as that kind of stitching really requires someone with a more steady foot on the pedal and a keen eye on where the stitches are being placed too. Neither of those things are among my talent range. Therefore, the pants to the suit for my son will probably remain on record as the only time I ever put in a fly-front zipper and the complexities of stitching on velvet or velveteen are such that those two dresses where the first and last I have ever sewn with that type of fabric too. Oh and one other thing -the jacket to my son's suit also had a "welt" pocket and that thing just about was enough to make me almost pitch the entire project into the "I may tackle this at some later date" box! Luckily, I did eventually get the damned thing in there but I hated every last minute of that task too!

Knitting - I love to do but it takes me forever to complete anything bigger than making scarves with the fancy fur-type yarns! I am not the speed queen knitter that my aunt was and I am also not the meticulous knitter she was either -plus, I have never been able to master knitting with four needles! I'm only a two-needle knitter. My neighbor and dear friend, Shirley, who I helped get started on knitting, called me a month or two after I had shown her a few things about knitting to tell me she was making a pair of mittens then -using four needles! I still envy her that ability and that was probably a good twenty years ago at least that I got her started knitting and in short order, she knew more about the craft than I did.

Crochet is faster for me to do but here again, I can't always follow crochet patterns very well. I can generally figure out most knitting patterns but crochet can really play head games with me. So as a result I never tackle any type of clothing projects in the crochet line -only baby afghans and once in a while, larger ones for the sofa or beds.

But the embroidery is something I discovered a couple years ago after making a small square tablecloth with a Christmas design on it along with a tablerunner of a really nice red fabric and the design -a Christmas design -was done all in white thread. I gave those two items to my older daughter Carrie, for Christma that year and learned that she actually likes those handmade things. This is the same daughter who wouldn't be caught dead in any clothing that is hand sewn or hand knitted (not by me anyway) but she does loves these type things so I'm kind of figuring that, depending in how many of these craft things I have on hand to embroider now that I can get finished by Christmas, she may find herself the recipient of one of these items then. Maybe. It all depends though ya know on how long my interest in the embroidery stuff sustains itself here too. It may last another week -a month -who knows, maybe from now until I pass on to wherever is my destiny -so I want to make sure I get as many of these things completed while the energy level is burning there!

Or my fingers freeze up and my brain goes dead or I go blind and cross-eyed from the fine stitching. Or if my fingers get pricked so many times that the skin is rough and snags the embroider floss which could also cause me to get pissed off at the project and put it too in the above mentioned "I'll do it later" box, ya know!

And now, I have to end this post because Miss Maya had been up in her bed, supposedly sleeping (we thought) but then there was this wild banging noise coming forth and pretty soon Mandy brought her downstairs, looking a bit frightened, so she is now out in my room with the tv on, in my bed, wanting Grammy to come lay down with her. And if I do that now, I will most likely then also fall asleep and won't be in any shape then to come back and finish this post later so I'll polish it off now!

To end this -since I went from the award thing to the craft thing but didn't award the Commenters Award as yet to anyone, I'd best do that now too, shouldn't I?

So to those of you, my readers, who I consider to be the most loyal of the commenters, please take this award and pass it on to those who you feel are most deserving of that recognition too.

Keith at Ten Years Running Blind
Fermicat at Cosmic Cat
Beth at Around the Funny Farm
Rick at Palm Springs Savant
Jim at Suldog
Theresa at Theresa's Life

Now it's time for me to go see if a certain little girl and I can put each other to sleep!
Sweet dreams to one and all.