A Tangled Thread…

TANGLED!

My blogs these days seem much of a piece – all about school.  But that is where my head is and where I am urging my heart to follow.

Each day brings something new, a high, a low and an in-between.  A child who will smile, a child who will frown, a child who will be more stubborn than a mule.  The mule I would ignore. The child stays with me even after the school day is done.  What could I / should I have done differently? Why was that one child so determined to challenge authority?  And why do I have to keep laying down the law?  A neat, tidy, orderly and silent classroom seems so at odds with lively, squirming children!!  But how lovely is the noiseless room, with minds engaged and thoughts abloom (even if they are all about getting even with the teacher!).

Singing class seems to be more about letting off steam than learning the tonic solfa and oh how they love their action songs. Even the ‘big’ girls!! When they’re happy, they really show it from the clapping, to the stomping and the screaming.  Next week, I’m planning on teaching them homemade percussion: if noise appeals then why not go the whole way? (A variation on ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’!)  I remember the fun we had, as children, tapping teaspoons, shaking little boxes filled with rice or hard grain and blowing through combs covered with tissue paper.  If you can think up any more impromptu ‘instruments’, do let me know.  (We also tapped teaspoons on the rims of glasses of water filled to different levels – when you got it right, you created the sweetest sound.  But we are too many, and glass and water can be so accident prone.)

And then there’s the crochet which is more ‘is not’ than ‘is’.  Teaching 60 plus students to simultaneously put hook to wool and turn out identical perfect stitches is the stuff of movies and dreams.  The variations on a stitch that I encounter are more the stuff of nightmares.  Perseverance is a virtue that both teacher and student need and I’m resolute, persistent, unrelenting, firm about reaching the goal!!

But there are the diversions.  One student managed to get a factory wound perfect ball of wool into an even more perfect tangle.  ‘Miss,’ she wailed, ‘HELP!’  I brought the yarn home and spent the best part of an hour following one end till it met the other and I had, once more, a well wound ball of yarn.  It was a happy shade of yellow and while hands were busy, my mind dwelt on the weeks gone by. Sitting and untangling the thread was somehow peaceful and yes, amusing!  And the student’s joyful whoop, ‘THANK YOU” was more than enough reward. 

Though I am still bemused by where I find myself, I have stopped wondering about the path, no matter how tangled. Like Theseus, I hold one end of the thread in my hands, but I know that the other end is firmly in God’s clasp.  And when the ends meet, I will be a perfectly wound ‘yarn’.  (Pun intended!) 

P.S. I finally managed to ‘draw’ using Paint.  My work of art? TANGLED!!

Dear Diary – II

Be careful what you wish for.  The wish might just come true. How often have you heard that? 

Crochet with me is an addiction and it makes me sad that there is no one who wants to learn the craft.  Not in my vicinity, anyway.

Well fate and the Education Board seem to be on the same wavelength.  The latter have decided that crochet and knitting are fundamental requirements for young ladies about to graduate from school. I quote (faithful to the original): “Crochet and knitting has (sic) been very popular in Europe and Japan. It has also been very popular even in India, where it is being practised for the last 200 years.  These two arts have always complimented (sic) each other.  It is being popularly practiced by women both in urban and rural India.  Woolen clothes are particularly used in places where the climate is extremely cold.  Those who excel in this art have been able to earn substantially from it.  Earlier the crochet needle was called a hooked needle.  Crochet is done by the hook of the needle, whereas knitting is done by two needles.  These needles are prepared from light metal and plastics.  ….Variety of attractive items can be prepared by crochet and knitting for e.g. torans, sweaters, shawls, table mats…. These forms have seen many innovative adoptations (sic) in new styles…”

Yes, the Education Board for English Medium, Government aided Secondary schools either needs to revisit English language basics or learn how to make use of spell-check and grammar-check on their computers.

But we are talking crochet.

The Principal needed a ‘teacher’.  I know crochet (I really do).  Put the two together and I now have 120 14-year olds who have to learn how to hold hook and yarn and produce a square handkerchief, a circular handkerchief, a small purse, a doll and a strip of lace by the end of the year. They are both optimistic and enthusiastic.  I hope I catch the contagion.

It is years since I stepped into a classroom and experienced the noise level at close quarters.  It takes some getting used to as is the: ‘Miss, please may I go to toilet’, ‘Miss, please may I drink water’, ‘Miss, I have to keep my appointment with the Counselor’, ‘Miss, she’s pinching me’, ‘Miss, may I come back into the room’!!  After years of just doing one’s thing and not interrupting the speaker’s flow, of cautiously leaving the room and re-entering, of being independent in thought and action, it is strange to find a roomful of persons chained to ‘authority’ (mine) and ‘permission’ (yes, mine again) .  But I cannot circumvent school rules even though my inner voice urges me to tell the girls, ‘just go!’

Strangely enough, I find other school lessons coming back to me.  Faced with chubby thighs and short skirts (yes, the mind boggles), I feel the need to tell them how to sit like young ladies: skirt over knees, knees together, ankles crossed.  The slump at the table is corrected with a sit up straight and I tell them how we had wooden foot-rules shoved down the back of our uniforms to ensure that straightness!  And then the thunder on the stairs is muted by asking them to walk on their toes rather than the flat of their feet.

The girls regard me with amusement and I am not surprised.  At 61 I am a species of dinosaur. The nice and friendly kind, I hope.

Christmas in July

Christmas is our favourite time of year, and the countdown begins once we cross the halfway mark on the calendar. As early as that? Yes. Call us crazy!

This is the time when crochet patterns for Christmas start appearing on the Net and when my fingers get itchy to experiment with hook and yarn, needle and embroidery floss. What will this year’s theme be?

Last year it was snowflakes. There were patterns galore to be sourced from the Net and from instructions collected over the years. As each little scrap of lace took shape, excitement began to build and from the many, a few personal favourites were selected and worked upon. Soon, I had a little ‘snowstorm’ as my workbasket filled. Come November, I had reached my target and all that was left was to send the snowflakes on their way where they would, hopefully, grace the branches in homes here and across the globe.

This year the tussle is between a Christmas tree, a bonnet and a heart. All three are delightful, easy to make and a joy to behold. So far, the tree is a frontrunner with the bonnet and heart coming a close second and third.

So, which will it be? Wait and see!

Showing Off!!

I love to crochet! My ‘heaven’ would be rather different from Capt. Stormfield’s or Cloud Nine. Mine would have a comfortable rocking chair, endless yarn, hooks and a pile of patterns. Bliss indeed.

I learnt to crochet from two of my sisters-in-law, perfectionists both. Meeting their approval kept me chained to the ball and hook and, since this was something I really wanted to do, there was much pleasure in the occupation. An example of loving what you do and doing what you love finding common ground!

Over the years, while expanding my repertoire, I have also expanded my circle of friends. While travelling to work – fortunately from terminus to terminus which allowed me a seat – I would work on my latest project and curious onlookers would engage me in conversation, some ultimately going on to work along with me. We learnt from each other, shared patterns and confidences. Finished projects were shown off and admired and future ‘must dos’ discussed. We crocheted everything from baby’s first matinee jacket to doll's clothes to monkey caps to torans. Other crafters joined the group, which expanded our interests and each parting was indeed sweet sorrow, with the next meeting looked forward to on the ‘morrow.

Then, there is my pen-pal from Yorkshire – a friendship that spans something like 25 years. We met through a letter that she had written in to a craft magazine, stating her aspiration to connect with crafters from every country. I am her Indian connection! What started off as an exchange of letters and photographs has now migrated to emails, and the friendship continues many projects later. ‘What are you working on now?’ has been the theme and closing sentence of all our correspondence.

Another crochet-holic connected with me through a mutual friend. She wanted to learn crochet and started off very ambitiously with a blouse, despite much dissuasion. We made it, together (pun intended). Now, we are in competition with each other and engage on back to back projects. Perhaps it is an addiction, but it is a nice one. There is something about the act of ‘creation’ that brings with it calmness and peace of mind – and a quiet joy – in this turbulent world which intrudes so very much into every life.

So, what am I working on now? Well, I have just finished the pincushion pictured here and am putting the finishing touches to a neckerchief (this was a long term project because it took forever to complete the 39 inches!) My next project is a sunhat followed by bookmarks. Thanks to all those lovely people out there who post free patterns on the Net, I am never going to run out of things to crochet. And since I love to ‘show off’ my work, you’ll be seeing photos of them by and by.

Be hooking up with you, soon!