Something From Nothing: Dedicated to my sister, Gail

 

 

Recommended Reading

 

 

      When my older sister Gail was a stay-at-home mother with three young daughters, she had the time and inclination to preserve her children's artistic efforts in creative ways.  She spent hours with her children crafting beautiful things from virtually nothing.  Using materials that she had on hand, she expended very little money on her projects.  The items she made from "nothing" are so much more precious than what she would have bought and given away.  It helps that she has a creative/artistic bent that allows her to see how something can indeed be created from what others would see as useless.       
 

Gail, Eleanor, Margaret and Sheila

Models for a Christmas Card

 

 

     I spent a lot of time with Gail's three daughters before I had children of my own.  I so enjoyed borrowing them for days and nights and weekends.  Of course, my sister was happy enough for them to go with me either singly or as a trio.  We did exciting things together......

like working,

Sheila

 

and dancing,

Margaret

 

and singing. 

Eleanor

 

     One of Gail’s creative inspirations was based on her daughters’ self-portraits drawn with wax crayons in an array of colors.  Sheila was 8, Margaret was 5 and Eleanor was two and a half when Gail had the girls each do a drawing of themselves.  My sister then took the drawings and replicated them into cloth dolls.  It has been 32 years since she made them and my set still holds an honoured place on my dresser and a treasured place in my heart.  I see them everyday. 

 

Self-Portrait Dolls:  Sheila, Margaret and Eleanor

 

The Kelley Girls:

Sheila
      The finished product reflects the complexity of their drawing skill. At age 8, Sheila’s is the most sophisticated, of course, with a symmetrical face, lovely, almost even, blond hair, dazzling eyelashes and an expensive golden pendant hanging around her neck. 

 

Sheila

 

Margaret

Margaret, age 4, has her close-cropped blond hair under control, eyes that are only slightly different in size and a big grin that extends a little higher on one side.  Her nose is only a little off-centre. 

 

  Margaret

Eleanor

      Eleanor, the two and a half year-old, presents a most interesting figure.  The blue eyes are of very different sizes, her smile is a straight line, and her mass of red curls is represented by 3 red circles and a blob of red to the side. 

 

Eleanor

 

      And here they are in action.  Sheila has let her hair down, Margaret welcomes us with open arms, and Eleanor is about to dance a little jig!

My Three Kelley Nieces

 

     A more recent shot of the three girls.  Sheila is still wearing that golden pendant, Margaret's grin is still beaming, and Eleanor still has three red curls!

 

 

 

The Manger Scene:

     Another  treasured gift I received from Gail was a crèche which included Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, a shepherd, a donkey and a sheep.  She made the characters three dimensional from scraps of fabric and stuffing, items she had on hand from previous projects.  Over the 30-plus years that this collection has been a part of our Christmas tradition, the three adult players have lost their headgear, Mary's right eye has enlarged, the shepherd has lost his staff, and the donkey has had surgery on his right shoulder.   Jesus is still sleeping soundly, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying a cloth-covered matchbox.   

 

The Manger Scene

 

 My daughter Julia, born on Christmas Eve, has always taken extreme delight in all things Christmas.  We call her "The Christmas Spirit" in our house. 

Julia, The Christmas Spirit

 

Gail's homemade crèche has given Julia hours of enjoyment over the years as she would play with the characters and give dialogue to their actions.  I was often sitting off in the corner listening carefully and taking mental notes. The following is an excerpt from my Mother Journals, December 8, 1998, when Julia was almost 8 years old. 

Because the crèche is out for Christmas, Julia has been playing the Christmas Story.  Part of the overheard narrative went like this:  “Mary tossed and turned all night because the old man snored.”  The story continued and in reference to Mary she made the following statement, “It isn’t everyday you get pregnant and you don’t know how.”  A little later in her play I hear her say that Mary woke Joseph up from his sleep.  I guess Joseph was annoyed because he said, “Jeesh, I think I liked you better when you were pregnant.”

     Another day when Julia was spending time with the crèche, she came running out to the kitchen, very upset.  "The sheepkiller's stick is broken, the sheepkiller's stick is broken, ”  she wailed.   This turned out to be the shepherd’s staff which was fashioned from a pipe cleaner.

 

Gail and the Next Generation:

What would you do with an empty Pringle can?  Throw it away? 

 

 

NO!  Make an Easter Bunny! 

Gail and her granddaughter, Miss Emily, Easter 2014

 

Keep up the good work, Gail!

 

 

Until next time....

 

The Knitting Studio

 

Today's Featured Mittens

Gentle Dawn and Blazing Sunset

 

     I have reclaimed my daughter Emma's bedroom as my Knitting Studio.  I (almost) literally shovelled the last of her belongings into the closet and carefully closed the door.  I then set about creating my space for "woolgathering."  The redecoration is not quite complete, but it is gradually evolving into my space. 

The Knitting Studio

     This may look messy, but it is a "working" studio.  Everything there, and everything in its place. 

 

The Artist's Palette

      This definitely looks messy, but it is not.  This is a collection of leftover yarn from my own projects as well as from friends who are happy to unload their leftovers on me.  I am pleased to take them and make use of them, eventually.  One of the reasons I annexed this space as a knitting studio was so I could spread my dribs and drabs of yarn out, grouping like colors together. That way I can better see what I have and what colors might go together in a suitable design.  Much better than having them hidden in plastic bags but you do need quite a lot of space to do this.  

 ToolShed



 

     I have some very small bits of yarn that I cannot bear to throw away because I am cheap, a hoarder and like the challenge of finding a way to use these scraps in mittens.  The balls are so small, however, that they get tangled up easily and cause a mess.  So I have borrowed from the toolshed practice of putting nails, screws, nuts, washers, etc of various sizes into glass jars so you can see what you have at a glance.  I am also happy to reuse glass bottles that would ordinarily get thrown away. 

 

Inventory

       I also have the new stock displayed on open shelves so I can see the colors available.  Sometimes, sitting in a rocking chair or re-charging on Aunt Gladys' cot, I will get an inspiration from looking at the yarn.

 

Design Department

     Well, really it's just a corkboard with some crucial notes and pictures tacked to it.  Useful!

 

Entertainment Centre

     Among my tools, I have my now retro Radio/CD player so I can spend time with Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Fred Eaglesmith, Jian Ghomeshi, Eleanor Wachtel, Shelagh Rogers, Rex Murphy, Bob Dylan... the list goes on....

 

 

Tea Time

Always time for a cup of tea....

 

 

Aunt Gladys' Cot

 

     The cot does list a little to one side but is adequate for naps of short duration to recharge creativity.  It is covered by the Dresden Plate quilt my mother made me when I graduated from high school 39 years ago.  The quilt is tattered and torn but keeps me in touch with my mother and her creative handiwork.  Goldilocks has slept in this spot.  It was "just right"!!!

Finishing Department

     This crucial piece of equipment has not yet found its exact place in the studio.

The Dressing Room

     I found this heavy old mirror at Value Village for $10.00!! The maintenance crew does not yet have it hung on the wall.  As you can see, the maintenance crew has a rather hang-dog demeanor. 

Staff: 
Production #1

Nugget

Production #2

Slippy

 

Quality Control #1

Juno


Finished Products

 

     Named, turnip-tagged and ready for shipment.  (Starry, Starry Night; Aurora Borealis: Snow Flurries at Night)

Packaging:
Ice Wine

     Ice wine container--perfect size for a pair of children's mittens.  Enhances the winter theme....snowflakes and the word Neige...(Mittens: SnowFlecks)
 

Single Malt Scotch

     And then there is the Glenfiddich container for the adult sized mittens. (Mittens: EarthBound)

The Daily Gleaner 

 

The blue plastic bag the newspaper comes in everyday.  (Mittens: North Pole) 

 

 Wall Art

Awaiting the maintenance crew for installation.

Punching the Clock

  

 

 

 

Until next time....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Knitting in Custody

Today's Featured Mitts

Pebbles in the Stream

(Texter/Smoker Fingerless Mittens)

 

 

Knitting Behind Bars 

 

           Michelle, a former colleague of mine, recently sent me an article about men in a Maryland prison learning how to knit (link to article).  The article explains that initially when the knitting instructor, Lynn Zwerling, offered to teach the prisoners how to knit, the burly prisoners were not very interested.  Once started, however, it has become the most popular class in prison.  Over the last two years Zwerling and her associates have taught more than 100 prisoners to knit and there are several names on the waiting list to get into her class.  The men started out making comfort dolls for children being removed from their homes due to domestic issues.  They then moved on to making hats for under-privileged children.  Zwerling believes the men have found the "zen" nature of knitting.  The assistant warden observes that the dynamic within the knitting class is soothing and calm, and that this dynamic goes with the men when they leave knitting class to return to the mainstream of the institution.  When Zwerling was asked in an interview if the men were reluctant knitters, her response was, "They want to knit, they just don't know they want to knit."

 

 

The High School Knitting Club

(Chapter 1)

        This prison article reminded me of a "knitting in custody" experience I had in my career as a high school teacher.  At the suggestion of some of my students who knew I was a knitter, one year I started a noon hour knitting club at our high school.  The club was a moderate success, attracting a diverse group of teens who were interested in learning how to knit and how to drink tea.  (I was known to have the occasional tea party for my various English classes.)

 

        The Knitting Club was rather fluid and relaxed as far as rules, and the students came and went to the weekly meetings.  The closet in my classroom held all the tools necessary for a Knitting Club---needles, yarn, teacups, teapot, teakettle, teabags, the occasional package of cookies.  The Knitting Club was a comfortable place to be and I did actually teach some people how to knit! 

 

 

Knitting in Detention 

(Chapter 2)

       During this period of my career, I was not a fan of detentions as a classroom management tool.  There were times, however, when I was forced to impose detentions to comply with school rules. There came a day when I had to impose detentions on one of my homeroom students, John,  for his repeated tardiness.  I had a good relationship with the young man and he was totally cooperative when I told him he had to come to my classroom at noon hour to serve a detention.  I was not content with him sitting there doing nothing and since he had no schoolwork to do, I gave him a tangled mess of yarn that needed to be untangled and rolled into a ball.  I got him started and I worked at my desk while he quietly finished winding the yarn.  When his period of incarceration was over, I released him back into the halls of the school.  The next day he inquired about joining the knitting club.  I encouraged him, of course, and he came to the next meeting and untangled a few more messes. 

 Knitting and Hockey

(Chapter 3)

           Shortly after this incident, one Saturday morning I was walking through a parking lot near my home when I heard someone calling my name.  I looked up to see John, my detention/homeroom student, about to board a yellow school bus.  "Mrs. Fullerton," he yelled across the parking lot.  "I learned how to cast on last night."

         "Really?" I responded, rather surprised at his enthusiasm.  "Who taught you how to do that?"

         "YouTube," he answered.  This was before YouTube was very popular and it was definitely a new field for this middle-aged knitting teacher.  I was impressed but did not want to scare him off with an over-zealous response.   

          "And I bought some white yarn this morning," he added.  "I'm going to knit my mom a scarf." 

         "That's great, John. And where are you off to today?" I asked. 

         "Playing hockey in Harvey," he replied.  "Gonna knit on the bus.  See ya Monday!"

         "Yeah, see you Monday," I answered as he boarded the bus, hockey bag in one hand, knitting bag in the other.

 

 

 

 

        Until Next Time........

 

 

 

Turnip Tags

 

 

Today's Featured Mittens

Evening in Paris

 

        When I started naming mittens, I used the backs of old cards to make labels.  After all, recycling and being cheap is part of my "philosophy". I cut the card backs into star shapes, labeled them and tied them to my mittens.  Example below---"Rainbow Through the Fundy Fog".

Rainbow Through the Fundy Fog

 

              A few months into the mitten-making craze, I remembered the turnip tags I had recently been given by my sister Kathy during her clean-up of the family homestead woodshed.  She had proudly and sarcastically gifted them to me as part of my inheritance.  The turnip tags carry a great deal of memory and were the perfect size to work as mitten labels. 

Turnip Tags 

 

 Memories on the front.....

Moss Glen

 

 

Mitten names on the back.......

Candy Cane

A Turnip Tag Memory:

 When I was a little girl (how many stories start out with this line?), growing up on a mixed farm, everyone in the family had jobs from a very early age.  Although I do not remember the actual incident because I was only three years old at the time, my subsequent work experiences and memories confirms it as truth.  Family legend has it that I was invited to go to visit my Aunt Gladys and her family for a sleepover.  I was very happy to go to her house to visit as the recent birth of my sister had displaced me as the baby in our house.  When I visited Aunt Gladys' house, I was the baby again.  And there was a houseful of people to dote on me, including her elderly parents-in-law.  On this particular visit, I was only allowed to go if I took my work with me.  My job, at age 3, was to string turnip tags on three foot lengths of baler twine.  We used the tagged twine to sew up the top of 5o pound burlap bags of turnips, one of the vegetables we sold from our farm.  So I took my turnip tags and baler twine and went to Aunt Gladys's house.  Once there, Grandpa Harry, Aunt Gladys' father-in-law, felt sorry for me and did my work for me.  Thank you, Grandpa Harry!

 

 

Until next time.................