Mittens and other talents

Shirley with the cat. Look at the strings on the mittens!

Ryen knitted a scarf for Michelle at Christmas time, her birthday is 12/24

We know from reading the Rosewood News that women got together for carding and spinning parties. We know they moved from house to house to make yarn from wool, have fellowship, and maybe even a little afternoon lunch. One of the first pictures Old Trunks shared was a group of ladies standing outside, (in the winter), with their spinning wheels.

Imagine the amount of steps involved from shearing sheep to mittens! Have you ever had mittens made at home? In the picture of Shirley with the cat, she is wearing mittens with a string. Think about all the mittens that get lost and how this was a cure all. The mittens stayed with the coat. Store bought mittens could be hooked to the coat sleeve with suspender like clamps.

My grandmother made my mittens when I was young. It was not wool that she carded and spindled, rather, it was yarn that was purchased. I always wanted white. She would trace my hand to know the size and before she put the thumb on, she would have me try them on. My last pair from her was yellow and I was a teenager these had no string on them!

I do not knit, nor do I crochet. As you can see, my son does knit. He started the scarf while in Mexico and finished it in Fargo at Christmas. A dinner guest had a birthday the next day and is also a person who loves scarves. Ryen, just learning it was her birthday, gave the scarf to her when he was finished.

When Ella was a widow living on Knight Avenue, she had a project basket at each chair/sofa in her house. Where ever she sat, she had 'handiwork' available. Although baskets may not have been at each place in Rosewood, Old Trunks is certain all five of the children either learned to knit, crochet, sew, or embroidery. If they did not learned, they were exposed to it. It was the era when skills were handed down. Never mind if the child had a gift to do it.

I never got the hang of Grandmother's treadle machine. How did she do it? OR did she sit in her rocker and knit and crochet, take a nap, wake up and go on? Oh! Do you have to count!? How did she just trace my hand and know just how to make the mitten fit?

Did she and others like her, learn to knit from her mother? Where the skills and talent something that was learned or did grandma have a gift to just do it? We know it was out of necessity.

How could Ryen sit smack dab in the middle of a houseful of company and talk and knit at the same time? Does he have some great grandmother in him or just grandma in him or both? Does he know?

Let's hope all of us can identify with talents of our ancestors in some way. Let's hope that the feng shui of today is nothing more than Daddy drawing plans on his drafting table and having a feel for where things go.

Look at your gifts today, think about your history.

Link up and say thank you.

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