I was just thinking the other day that it is 40 years since my first summer away from home. I was such a grown up girl! I had taken a job for the summer as a Mother's Helper at Winnipeg Beach. A mother's helper in those days was usually a mid to late teen who was responsible enough to watch a family's children, mostly on the beach, playing with the children making sure they were safe and generally having a fun time. There was a bit of work to it, like making up the kids beds each morning and often taking them back to the cottage (while parents visited and socialized with friends) for lunch and a nap for the younger children. I was in charge of two happy little creatures, aged 5 and almost 7. Their Ma insisted on a afternoon rest. This meant a quiet time for me too as I was required to stay with the children at the cottage. Afternoons were a real lazy time, but things picked up at dinner and often the various families would socialize in the evenings and I along with other girls who worked as Mother's Helpers went to someones cottage and played with the children while the mom's played MaJong and the Dads talked shop with their fellows....
I had learned sometime before, from my grandmother how to crochet and over the summer I worked on granny squares. For most of the summers since that one at the beach, I have gone back each year to crocheting grannies. It is a very easy project to carry around and is easily interrupted without loosing your place.
My days were full but yet there were many hours that only required my presence but not my participation so I usually carried along some yarn and a hook - and I ended up teaching most of the other girls how to crochet, while I learned to play bongo from one girl and how to better swim from another and how to make tuna melt sandwiches from another... Oh and that banana and sour cream with brown sugar was a great dessert!
That summer ended with 80 dollars wages in my pocket (that was for the WHOLE SUMMER) and a finished granny square afghan that I carried around with me for a few years to my own little apartments...
So even though it seems a bit strange to be hooking away each summer, it has become a tradition for me. Many of the completed grannie square afghans have been given as shower, wedding or baby gifts, and it seems that I usually manage to get at least one done each year and that it is done in summer....
My stack of grannies are quickly growing. I decided that I would make each a single colour, but I have not yet decided how I will arrange them when it comes to connecting all the squares.
My sewing room is mostly being neglected now, except to go and find something that doesn't generate heat! I rediscovered one of those really ugly pieces of fabric that you later wonder why you got it -- well, at least this one had a value village price tag on it of 99cents!
Since I am crocheting out on my backyard swing and working so diligently on those grannie squares, I thought I would take a bit of a break and see what I could create with this really ugly fabric.
First thing I did was decide that it was going to become YARN instead of remaining as yardage.
To create yarn, you slice the fabric into half inch strips, but don't cut the selvege on each side, so it looks like this
So you have all these long stringy things all joined, carefully cut through the selvege on one side, then back to the first side, so essentially you are snipping every second strip on alternate sides and if cut properly you will wind up with a very very long piece. The fabric that this stuff just happens to be was a poly knit, so when you cut this into a 1/2 inch wide strip and lightly pull on the strip, it will sort of roll around itself and become YARN, especially if the back side is fuzzy, that is what will end up being on the outside. Last is to carefully wind it all into a ball and crochet something...
I have no idea what I am actually making here, maybe a tote? maybe just a basket to keep stuff in, maybe I will make a lining for it. At this point, as I tell my hubby when he asks "What are you making now?" I don't rightly know, but it will be something sometime soon...
