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Friday, May 11, 2012

Tell Me a Story

I'm linking up with Tami's Amis for today's FO Friday!


Today, my FOs have a story to tell. And it starts with a story from me.

I'll admit it, I love to tell stories. Usually they are just an elaborate telling of a certain activity throughout my day. E often calls me out on it, not because he doesn't like my stories, but because he knows I can be more precise. So I attempt to be precise, but often I still tell a story. Maybe it's because I am a history major, and I know that often times there is more to a simple statement then meets the eye.



Take today for instance. I could just tell you that my FOs for this week are a huge stack of cotton dishcloths that I suddenly decided to make. But honestly, that would be pretty boring. There are several stories behind the excessive amount of dishcloths that I made this week.

The first is a story about me and my mom. I have been crocheting since I was around 12 years old. As a middle schooler, I had a limited scope of the crafting world, and mainly enjoyed making simple square dishcloths for my mom and anyone else important to me. (I also made a handful of simple scarves, but that's beside the point.) As I expanded my knowledge of the crafting world, I knew that there was more to life than dishcloths. But my mom, who shopped regularly without me, could not be 'trusted' to buy yarn in colors and quantities that I needed for whatever project I wanted to complete. So I told her it was safe to buy dishcloth cotton for me, as a skein of it could make one or 2 dishcloths, and it didn't really need to match. And so here I am, nearly 10 years later, with a drawer full of cotton yarn that will never be anything other than dishcloths.You can see this in the picture above- the blue/yellow/purple yarn, the purple/blue/green yarn, and the pink/purple/magenta yarn.
So that is the first FO story from me. I hope it made some sense.

The second story has two parts, and starts with a very kind aunt, Aunt B, who supports my crafting in many ways. (she's the aunt who sells her sweatshirt designs at craft shows, and allows me to piggyback on her booth.) Aunt B often 'gifts' me yarn that she won't use, as she had a friend who passed away a few years ago who left most of her crafting stuff to my aunt. Aunt B is my mom's oldest sister, and she mainly sews now, as machine sewing is easier on her hands. Within the last year, Aunt B passed along to me a half-used cone of cotton yarn. I accepted it graciously, because what craft can refuse free yarn? However, as it sat in my room, waiting to be used, it started to grate on me. Why, you may ask, did it bother me?
Enter part 2- the boyfriend, E. E and I have been together for nearly 3 years now, so I would say he has a huge impact on my life. E is in the military, as I have mentioned before, and quite patriotic. And I am student of history, and have much respect for my country. However, E finds some displays of patriotism to be cheesy. This yarn falls under the umbrella of cheesy patriotic as defined by E. (Note: I am not trying to insult anyone who loves Americana print yarns.) So this half-empty cone of yarn sat and sat and sat, until last week when I went on my dishcloth making craze. I knew that if I was going to be on a creating kick, I should probably use this yarn before I chucked it across my [very small] room.
Pictured above is the empty cone (OK, not all empty, there might have been 8 ft left.) with the third and final dishcloth, made extra cheesy in the shape of a star, using the Americana print yarn. I joking told E the other day that I would send them all over to his house-- he was not entirely keen on the idea.

The third story is short and sweet. I broke my yarn fast, and bought MORE cotton yarn-- again you may ask why... Well, as I may have mentioned on Wednesday, one of my closest friends is getting married next month. Her bridal shower is next week. I wanted my gift to be more personal, so I had to buy more cotton in her kitchen colors, so I could make some dishcloths for her. Of the stack of dishcloths that I have made, 3 of them are currently for her. I plan on adding at least one more, plus a reusable grocery bag.

I hope you enjoyed my little stories to go with my FOs.
I have one final thing to celebrate- I finally wove in all the ends on my 2 lapghans!
Pay it forward handmade anyone?

1 comment:

  1. I'm a librarian and I love a good story, and I totally get your need to tell them! I think it's cool what you did with your washcloths. You've give them a brand new life! As for the patriot yarn, cheesy it is, but wonderful that you worked it to it's full cheese potential in the form of a star! Hooray for you. (and thanks for sharing the baby blanket idea over at my place!)

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