I took some pictures of the pie when it was done, so I can use them for the future recipe/memory book on my Mom. I think I should search for some new silk flowers for the photography set ups at some point. I almost got one at Goodwill, but I guess it wasn't the right arrangement and I didn't get it.
Or maybe I should treat myself to some store bought flowers sometime.
So, the pie baking/photosession was done and then later in the afternoon, his girlfriend and her daughter came. After a short bit, she busied herself in the kitchen making an awesome quiche. Boy was that good, I had to have a second helping. Mollyanne wanted to go straight to pumpkin pie which in fact she did get me to slice her a piece.
Then we got situated in the living room watching Brave with the girls and their new little friend. She is four. As we got started in on the movie, she got interested in my yarn, so I gave her a needle and a skein of yarn to play with while she was sitting down. Immediately, she said she wanted me to make her a sweater. That was funny and I kind of said, that's a big project.
Then I talked about making slippers and I showed her my slipper pattern that she might like me to make her sometime. Of course it was cute, she was picking out the ballet slipper color she wanted and I had to tell her it might be a different color from the picture.
So we sat down and watched the movie. I had never seen Brave and thought it was really good.
Meanwhile their little friend was sitting wrapping the yarn around the needle. She was trying to figure out why she couldn't get to the purple color yet, so I had to explain to her that it was multi color.
It was funny, watching her trying to knit. At that young age, little girls have a hard time figuring out how to knit. Even my daughters have a hard time casting on and figuring out how to knit with two needles. Julia can finger knit really well, but she hasn't grasped the concept of knitting with needles. I went and dug out my knitting mushrooms last night too so they could practice with those.
I've used them before too, but really I am saving them for grandchildren and last night thought this was the perfect moment to dig them out.
Their little friend was suddenly talking to her mom about how she was making slippers. Then after a little bit both her mom and I had to decide when to tell her she had to be done winding the yarn around the needle as we didn't want her to unravel the whole skein. At a later point, I found her a different skein she could play with. A ten cent yard sale one. Ha ha.
Then it was funny, she started to gather a few of my balls of yarn and more of my double points and started to make a face and body out of the yarns and the needles.
I wish I had thought to get my camera out as at one point both Julia and little Brooklyn were sitting together working with the yarn. It would have been a priceless picture of two little girls learning to knit.
I guess there is always next time. There will be plenty of opportunity as I always have the yarn around.
Years ago, my daughters would use the yarn and the needles and I would get it started for them. They did pretty well learning, but of course there were mistakes and they would get stuck and I would finish up the messed up row for them to get them past it and onto a new row.
One of their older friends used to knit a lot. Maybe she still does. I'm friends with her grandmother and her mom and her grandmother does a lot of felting work. Hats and pocketbooks. I will be due to do the craft shows with her next year for sure.
The timing wasn't right for me this year.
A few days ago, Julia had been cleaning up her room a little bit and she and I discovered this old knitted bear I made for one of them. She's thinking it is her's but I'm remembering making it for Mollyanne. Hopefully that won't turn into an argument in the future. But, Julia also has this knitted girl I made for her once, so both girls have some funky looking stuffed toy.
One of these years, I also have a book or two on making these cute knitted dolls with all the outfits you can make for them.
I think it is really good for girls of all ages to learn to knit. So when Brooklyn just tried to do it in her own way, I just let her do it. I didn't care if the yarn got tangled a little bit as I can always fix it later. The point was that she was trying to make something and learn how to do it, and the process is important that she and my daughters just try to learn and do it at their own pace.
This is true with any task that a child is trying to figure out how to do. We need to just sit back sometimes and watch them do it and let them make their wonderful discoveries. Brooklyn's mom said that she has grandparents who like to knit.
I think that is great when little girls have someone who likes to do it. Someone who can show them how to do it. My Grammy used to knit a lot when we were growing up. I can remember visiting at my Aunt Harriet's camp and my Grammy would be sitting in the green recliner chair with her project in her hands. One year she was making an intricate cabled sweater for my cousin. She used to make them for us too. I vaguely remember an ivory cabled sweater cardigan for me. There is probably a picture of me in it somewhere.
She made my first born son a baby blanket and six pairs of little cabled socks. I'm not sure if I have all the pairs now, but I have held onto all the things she knitted for him. She passed away when he was three months old.
When I got married, I stayed over her house for a weekend shortly before marriage and she helped me to sew a tank top on her sewing machine and she helped me to knit up one of those dishcloths. At the time, she had expressed how she wished she could have done this with me when I was younger.
This may have been an issue between her and my mother. There were many times when my Mom would be on the phone with her for a while and sometimes she would take the phone into my brother's room and lie on his bed talking to her with the door closed. We used to have special sleepovers once a year on the Christmas holiday. My Aunt Harriet would be visiting too and it was always a special time for my siblings and I to have some alone time with Grammy and my aunt. Sometimes it was my sister and I and other times it was a one at a time sort of thing.
But thinking back on this, Grammy may have wanted to have more opportunities to have a weekend alone with us.
I wish now that I had had that opportunity too. I am thankful that she did teach me how to knit a little bit. A lot of what I know, I also ended up learning on my own. I did take a knitting class at a woman's house when my boys were very little, but still a large part of it, I have learned on my own.
The other really funny thing this last fall was trying to teach my sister how to cast on stitches and learn how to do it. I wish I had a video of that one!!!!!! For the life of her, she couldn't do it. But her oldest daughter did have it down pat by the end of the evening. So my sister, said there is hope for her daughter to learn! But not her! Ha ha.
Jennifer Jo Fay
Copyrighted December 5, 2012
This was my Mom and my sister at my wedding.
yum. This one was from my Grammy's recipe she got from a friend and my Dad always loved it.
My skinny scarf I made earlier this week. It's a wool yarn and I would say it must be boucle yarn.
Luna my gray Siamese mix. She's on my blanket I had as a little girl and one year my Grammy sewed new satin trim on it. Actually, it may have been the same weekend that I was over learning to sew my tank top and knit the dishcloth before getting married.
Here, I was playing around with the different color, sepia and black and white effects on my little green underwater camera. I was bummed, I had to throw out a little red Kodak one as the lens must have broken. Hmm... might be a good reason to knit up some little bags to contain these so there's no future breaking. And add some padding.
My coffee table in the evening. When I get home, I tend to over load it with the things I am using. The little clock is one my Mom gave me one Christmas and it still works! I almost was inclined to throw it out as it's not white like it originally was. It now has that aging yellowing effect going on. But where she gave it to me, it has sentimental value. That's the way I am. I get very sentimental about things.
I felt a little bad about throwing out my Nana and Grampy's picture frame a few days ago. I took the artwork out and didn't throw out what I did, but the frame and the glass kind of was giving me creepy feelings as my neighbors upstairs were talking about it. And when I thought someone had broken into my apt one day, this particular picture was extremely crooked. Then once again, three weeks later, it was extremely crooked once again in the same exact manner. Just didn't make me feel quite right. And there was a small hole in the glass that I didn't see before. I can't see how there would be any camera in it, but I threw out the frame all the same as the paint was chipping. And after I threw it out and came back in, the girl upstairs was saying that I threw it out and that they didn't need to go into my apt after all and take it out. Yet, later in the evening they seemed to still be talking about being able to see me. I swear they are just messing with me, and I can hardly wait until they are gone.
My old Raggedy Ann doll. She plays the music.
Part of my coffee table that I redid a few weeks ago. I will be inclined to do more of this with some new yard sale pieces next Spring. Or some new collage frames to hang on my wall, to replace the retired piece.
My Bella Swan doll and my Mom's clown figurine.
Ella, my Siamese Tortie Point. Whoops, she's sideways.
My Jennifer porcelain doll that my Mom gave me one Christmas. She was my very first one. She has a big gold key that goes into her back. Next to it is my old musical jewelry box she also got me another Christmas.
