Needles and a Pen » Knitting, Sewing, and Nursing School

It made my dad worry that he was on some sort of Make a Wish tour, but my sister and I asked if we could get our boxes of childhood stuff down from above the garage, sort through them, and take most of it home.  I was in search of my American Girl doll, since Ellie and Will are both enamored with them whenever we spy one sitting in a shop.

I found Addy, wearing the warm and comfy pajamas I’d dressed her in for what I knew would be a long hibernation. Having seen Toy Story 3 I feel really good about that choice.  😉

I found Addy’s bed and dresses, and all of the letters and journals and treasures I’d placed in her trunk for safekeeping.  Among them, a special issue magazine from 2000 called ‘The World in 2050.”  I kept it because I thought it would be fun to look through it in 50 years and see how accurate it was.  Checking in now, 11 years down, 39 to go, to looks like we have a ways to go still.  I also found quite the shrine to my second grade beloved.  A tissue paper flower he’d given me, a paper on which he had written that I was nice and “really really cute” and a local newspaper article where he was pictured.  Will is just two years younger than this boy I was so enamored with.  That parts amazes me!  I also found all of my journals from high school.  I know that not enough time has passed for these to not be cringe-worthy, so I tucked those back inside and hoped that maybe, just maybe I’ll live long enough to see a day when my teenage journals don’t make me want to die of humiliation.

My favorite things, though, came out of Kelly’s (many) boxes.  First there was her baby quilt.  My very first memory is of working on this quilt.  My mom was letting me ‘help’ on a section, and I stabbed by finger and felt like it had practically been amputated.  Then my Poppa walked in the door (he and my Nana have always been frequent visitors) and the clouds parted and the radiant light shone down and he kissed my finger and all was better.  I remembered that there were hearts on the quilt, but it’s funny to me that the hearts were the quilting pattern, not applique in some way.  My little almost-three-year-old self had mainly registered the gridded heart pattern.

My mom is very good about labeling her quilts.  She should come do mine.  😉

I found this needlework in one of Kelly’s bins.  I figured it was far too 70s awesome to have been made for that 1986 baby, so while nodding and winking I asked my mom “You made this for me while pregnant with me because you love me so much, right?”  She answered yes.  I knew it!  (My dad later revealed that this treasure actually belongs to HIM and she made it for HIM in 1979 or 1980 but we’re letting Finders Keepers rules apply in this case, and this sucker is going to come live in my photography studio.)

I’m finishing this post with one of the coolest things ever.  Get ready.  Are you ready?

This is B’Elanna Torres of the Starship Voyager.  Complete with forehead ridges and tricorder.  All designed and knitted by a 12 year old Kelly.  Before she had mad knitting skills, she’d put blue tack (a British sticky putty) on her baby doll to simulate forehead ridges and sewed a Klingon outfit for her.  But once she knew how to knit?  GAME ON.