She loves to knit and bake and take it slow.
When she was in grade school she was in a group like the girl scouts. It was called Stepping Stones. At the beginning of the year the girls would look at a booklet or a long list of activities or crafts that they would like to learn. The parents wrote down a list of their personal abilities so we could see who could teach the girls.
I wrote down knitting and cross stitch, needlepoint and quilting.
The girls (including Emma) wrote down things like macrame' and miniatures, cake decorating and painting.
I was not called upon to teach and thought it was interesting my child had no interest in the things I did on a daily basis. Seriously, who wants to macrame' besides hippies?
Interestingly, my husband taught the girls how to make icing flowers.
How fun is that?
So. I was off the hook. But I always wondered why Emma wasn't even interested in the things I did.
Just this weekend Emma said to me as she worked on her first cable knit, "I love to work with my hands."
I have said that many times myself.
Do you remember the scripture I had on the blog for nine years?
The one that gave this blog it's name?
"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands."
1 Thessalonians 4:11
Can you say delayed gratification?
I'm so happy to finally have a knitting partner :o)
The domestic life is good.
Encourage one another,
Donna
(I did teach Emma and her girl friends how to knit eventually. I can remember her girlfriends coming over so I could help them cast on. Everybody always forgets how to cast on.)
p.s. My grandma Hansen taught me to knit.
Do you have any good resources re how to knit....I have always wanted to....
ReplyDeleteGina, I am not a knitter, but our DIL learned how to knit by watching a video on the internet and then she did buy a DVD for the advanced knowledge.
Deletelove and prayers, jep
Thank you, jep. You are always so kind. I learned to crochet from a you tube video - so I suppose I can learn to knit from one too! I've tried to learn from a book...no luck!
DeleteAll the best to you!
Gina :)
Isn't that verse in your signature anymore? I was thinking it was. It's a fave of mine because it's so NOT my natural way....
ReplyDeleteOh! There it is! Remember it was up at the top with the picture of me holding katie for so long.
DeleteYes! I always forget how to cast on! Why is that!???
ReplyDeleteI have "started" learning to knit twice now - always in the winter after Christmas. Sadly though, as soon as the weather breaks, I take a "break" and never start up again. I want to knit but it always gets put on the back burner and forgotten about.
I guess it doesn't help that I get UBER frustrated when I miss a stitch or mess up a row or purl when I should be knitting....I am the queen of dumb mistakes.
What a simple thing, but oh so satisfying. May you have many hours of companionable knitting.
ReplyDeleteI never learned to knit. When I was 22, a fifteen year old friend taught me to crochet. I made several afghans and was done. I think cross stitch took over. Now my eyes are too bad to cross stitch.
I clearly remember a phone call with my middle son, who is the most unlike me, in which he said, "Well, you know, Mom, I'm a lot like you: I love to work with numbers." I almost fell over!
Have you ever wanted to quilt, Donna? I love the idea...[long silence]...but I think that's as far as it would go.
I was an avid and enthusiastic quilter for about ten years. I loved it and my very special quilting group!!!
Deletemy mother never did any "crafty" things. For some reason, when I was young, I did want to learn. Mrs. Mendenhall taught me how to knit. I taught myself to crochet and needlepoint. Bryan Jr High taught me to sew. I dropped knitting for many years, and have picked it up recently in the past few years. It was like riding a bike! Once I got going, it all came back to me! Nice to know the mind isn't totally gone!
ReplyDeleteKris Schwarz
Yes! The very first time I read your blog I fell in love with that bible verse!!! I immediately wrote it down and taped it onto my wall next to my computer. We had just come home with Sophia and I was figuring out life and motherhood. Seriously, I could cry just thinking about it. It was almost like it gave me the ok to feel good about what I wanted for myself and for Kris and Sophia.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with having a domestic side. That gene runs strong in my family. : ) My mother and grandmothers all can sew, knit, quilt, you name it, very well.
Good for you, Emma! : )
Sarah P. from I don't know how to knit in Iowa
What does it say about me that when I read your comment "That gene runs strong in my family" I thought of Star Wars? Our sons watched the Star Wars movies so much we can quote lines from them to one another. "The force is strong in our family."
DeleteFrom I don't know how to knit in Texas, but I do love that Bible verse, jep
LIKE
DeleteSarah P. from I can bake in Iowa
(((HUGS))) A kindred spirit are you...baking takes my mind off of worries. My mother used to say that she could always tell when I was doing hard thinking and praying, because I would bake something. Like Emma, I always follow the instructions or things don't turn out as well. ;-) jep
DeleteSo touching how that verse spoke to you when you came home with such a little babe, Sarah!
DeleteMary Z from I don't know how to knit but I can also bake in Illinois :)
I do remember that Bible verse on your blog!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE to knit with Al. She is a far better knitter than I. We give each other yarn gifts.
It is heavenly. I taught Zach to knit to as he asked. He knit one scarf for a high school girlfriend and then he stopped. But he does know how!
I love sewing....my mother taught me to sew. She wasn't the patient kind and I didn't enjoy it for a LONG time. But now, it is what I do on Friday nights, sew pajamas for my kids. Sewing and scrapbooking (I have to do something with the photos that I take).
ReplyDeleteI need to find a knitting mentor. It is something I have always wanted to learn to do, but never did.
I still have the (ugly) macrame hanging plant holder that I made in Girl Scouts. I finally got it out and have a big (fake) plant hanging in it on my screen porch....fake plant, macrame holder, perfection together!
I hope it is a fake spider plant.
DeleteJuli, I love your comment about macrame and a fake plant...perfection, indeed!
ReplyDeleteMy mother and sister could sew ANYTHING, so I never learned. I can knit, but I feel much better knitting if Madelaine is sitting right.next.to.me and can catch me before I knit away into mistake oblivion. I do have a good stash of yarn that I am determined to use up. It's the purl thing that gets me, but without it things get boring very fast. Maybe I will go back and watch your sock tutorials (-:
Way to go, Emma!
Do you think you could get Patrick to do a talkie blog on icing flowers? Would love to learn!
Happy Tuesday,
Di
In reply mode today....I second the Patrick instructions for icing flowers. That would be fun to learn. Great idea Di! love and prayers, jep
DeleteI ALSO want a jeep just like mom. even though she never had one...
ReplyDeletefinishing projects without mom is hard, I make her do the difficult things like seaming. I will try it for the first time this weekend. skype might be necessary.
i love baking because i can actually DO it. i need to follow a recipe otherwise things do not taste good.
Instructions are good things in baking. I follow the recipe, too.
DeletePraying for all good things for you Emma....including a jeep in your future.
love and prayers, jep
I share your love of busy hands. My mom taught me to cross stitch when I was just seven or eight. I created many, many projects that now hang on my mom's walls, or were given as gifts. Interestingly, I don't have a single cross stitched picture on my own walls. I haven't stitched in years, but I learned to crochet about four years ago, and most evenings I watch tv with my hubby with a yarn project in my hands. It's my way of relaxing in the evening. It sounds like Emma has found the joy in creating something real with your very own hands. How special that you two can share that together.
ReplyDeleteIt can probably thrill and/or frighten children, or many feelings in between, when they find they are more like their parents than they ever dreamed. I suspect Emma is happy to have interests in common with her mom! Jane Austen worked with her hands by writing and I love her quote "“Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort."
ReplyDeleteMary Z
I LOVE that quote!!
DeleteAhhh the simple pleasures, my mother was not at all domestic, I craved learning to bake and knit and do crafts. Alas as I had my own family I learned these things in classes and online etc. Now I too have passed these skills to my grown daughters (but they were not interested in their youth), it is the cycle of life and I hope those talents never die.
ReplyDeleteLovely story.
Sandyleeisme
At the airport :-)
ReplyDeleteI have strong admiration for knitters !
Donna, having a visit with you and Mary Z was a highlight of my trip :-)
It was so fun! Thank you for coming all this way!
DeleteKnitting is on my list to learn. Actually my mother tried to teach me. I was unsuccessful...always with tension so tight, I could not slip the yarn from the needle! Oy.
ReplyDeleteThis post makes me want to knit again. :) My mom taught me how to knit when I was 7. I still have the little rectangle I made, it is awful! I learned how to sew from my mom and a neighbor lady when I was 10-11. I have been sewing ever since. I taught all 4 of my girls to sew, but only my 16 year old enjoys it. They each have something they are very good at doing. One crochets, one crossstitches and one loves to draw.
ReplyDeleteI am teaching a sewing class every Friday at our homeschool co-op to 16 students. Two are boys and they are having a blast!
Keep up the good work, Emma! Eventually you won't need to read the recipe for your favorites. My kids think it's neat when I throw all the ingredients for cookies into a bowl without looking at a recipe and they actually come out pretty good!
You took that verse down, Donna? It's a great one!
My friend Brenda knits. She is very talented. Today she made me a bag to put my computer in to take to Ohio. It is very pretty. I love that she made it with so much love. I don't really want to take my computer to Ohio, but I might just so I can use my bag.
ReplyDeleteI can't visit your blog from my job. Did I tell you that? So, anyway, if you ever think I am not coming, I am coming. It just has to be when I get home from work. Sometimes I don't feel like being online any more at night. All I do is edit, edit, edit. Lately, I have been reading too.
Currently I am reading Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. I called my Mom after the first paragraph and told her I think she will like this book. I just finished The Space Between Us and I would highly recommend it.
I miss you and your knitting hands.
I LOVED Major Pedigrew!!
DeleteMy dear grandma taught me to knit when I was in grade school. Just simple knit and purl. Then as a young married she helped me through an entire sweater! I still have it (a little tight now...) She has passed on to heaven so I have no one to help me now and the years have gone by. I look at the beautiful sweater patterns on the Ravelry website and drool- but I certainly don't have the skills to knit one. Maybe someday I will take classes. On my bucket list. I still cherish the romantic idea of a British Christmas with the gift of a beautiful handknit sweater tied up in a lovely gift box to be opened after the figgy pudding is eaten.
ReplyDeleteDebbie Z.
I love that scripture. My mother lives a very long ways away - I wish we had the opportunity to do things like that together. My daughter and I are hiking buddies. Not a craft, but something we both enjoy immensely.
ReplyDeleteMy Greek aunt taught me to knit when I was seven. I have taught all six of my daughters ... and while some knit more than others, none of them is a regular knitter. It is my favorite form of relaxation!
ReplyDeleteI missed this post while on vacation last week. Cassie has recently started sewing more, using the sewing machine we got her for Christmas last year. She sewed dresses out of Taylor Swift T-shirts for herself and her sister-in-law to wear to the TS concert a couple of weeks ago. So cute! She also sewed burp cloths for a friend's baby shower. What a thoughtful, creative gift! I am so proud of her sewing and so happy she credits me for the idea. I sewed a bit when she was growing up but nowhere near as much as my mom did. It's wonderful to see our daughters continue the domestic endeavors we enjoy, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI credit you with inspiring me to knit again. Sad to say I haven't knitted anything since we moved here last year. Perhaps I will start something new this fall?
Sandy C.