One of the fun things I enjoyed was getting Dad addicted to Knifty Knitters.....Now, my Dad is one of those rare persons who can sew, knit, crochet, clean the sewing machine and adjust it, bale hay and run the tractors (after repairing them if necessary), deliver calves, make beautiful wooden items, and outline and prepare to deliver a really interesting sermon/lesson at church.....all in one day! (With time to spare enjoying his massive model train lay out, painstakingly building landscaping and traincars and villages....) And this is above and beyond his career of being a professor of computer sciences.....with a Master's degree.....and working for the Big ones, IBM and Honeywell, as well as teaching at a college for many many years......
Anyway, he had some wrist surgery a few years back, involving fusion of the joint at the base of his thumb, and this surgery was performed on the opposite wrist this year. Both fusions have taken well, and he's happy that he can still hunt, fish, and do all the other activities above....pretty much as well as before he began having problems in the first place.
I recently got hooked on the Knifty Knitters because they looked like a big brother to the little knit cord producing toy I had as a child.....my childhood version had four pegs on it and made a cord you could use to tie your hair, etc.....Using the same principle, these Knifty Knitters produce hats, scarves, afghans, etc, in record time....using a hook to pull the stitches over the pegs. I read a lot about them, on blogs and websites and a recurring theme was "they are easier on my arthritic hands than regular knitting". Lightbulb! I was enjoying them, but it occurred to me that Dad might enjoy them also......
Enjoy? Yes. Become addicted? That too! He has made 17 hats since I gave him his looms! He is planning to try to sell them at the Craft Fair in Cody in November......along with the BEAUTIFUL leather tooling items he has crafted. (I forgot to mention the leather work above!) Here's his leather working station and all his tools......
(imagine a picture here - blogger is not cooperating)
He and I were giggling that if we made any profit selling hats - we could buy more hobby supplies....yarn, quilting material, leather supplies, wood!
Mom is glad that he has another fun craft to pursue.....but worries about the closets bursting from yarn stash at some point in the future!
Mom took advantage of us concentrating on the looming, to cook in peace, and whipped up some absolutely delicious meals......she joked that I was staying at the 4-J Ranch SPA......and its true. Fantastic meals just appeared! And there were no dishes for me to do!
My mom has many gifts, but hospitality and cheerleading are two that come to mind for me most often.....She organizes and volunteers for so many things at her church.....she provides arrangements weekly for the front of the church to make it pretty; she is instrumental in making sure that the monthly women's prayer meeting takes place with lessons, coordinating decorations and visual aids that help get the lesson points across. She helps collect items for the women's crisis center in Cody; twice while I was there she saw something on sale, or something with a coupon (example: pillows at K-Mart) that would benefit the women's home, and gleefully purchased the items at a fraction of original cost and put them in a big box she will drop off at the women's home later.....She keeps in touch with the church members, checks up on who's sick, who's had medical issues, who needs encouraging...... And she is a help-meet for Dad in every sense of the word.....she keeps keeps him well fed without him realizing that its "healthy" food, she makes their home warm and welcoming.....She bakes bread from scratch, and helps Dad on the train layout too.....Sigh....
Can you tell that I miss them?
(I had pictures of Dad and Knifty Knitter, and Mom in the kitchen cooking, but Blogger is making my brain hurt today. Will not accept any pictures for this post. Sigh.)
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