"Now let me say this about that..."

I'm sorry, I've always wanted to use that line, ever since I heard President Nixon say it. Makes me laugh :) Please don't get the idea that I'm upset with my Mom for keeping her secrets, because I'm not. In fact, I was very motivated to learn stuff on my own and I guess she provided me with a good lesson to "go find out" what I wanted to know. I have done exactly that, too. I have learned how to spin yarns and threads, I can crochet, knit, tat, embroider, quilt and sew some quality goods! I have experienced a lifetime as a "seeker", enjoying every moment of discovery and mastery. Mom did teach me how to sew but that may have been in the interest of saving her machine from trial and error learning. Besides, it's kind of hard to hide a sewing machine - ha, ha, ha!

One of the skills I developed was in tatting; working not with a needle, or hook but a shuttle and some very tiny thread! I got "hooked" when I found a little box at a yard sale filled with ity-bity spools of multicoloured threads and a plastic fish-looking thing with thread wrapped around its middle. No internet then, it took a lot of research in the library to find out what it all meant and a tiny "how-to" book I found at Newbury's "5 and dime" store. My Mom said I was crazy, I brought back memories of the old ladies on the New York subways and buses. Actually, I remembered seeing old ladies chatting away, never looking at their work and never missing a stitch! I wanted to be like them. Well, I got the "old" part down, at least.

Tatting shuttles are just neat! They used to come in all kinds of sizes; not to long ago you could find them about 4 inches long and hefty enough to handle some thick yarns. Some have fixed bobbins - a part of the shuttle body - some have removable bobbins, so you can push in refills when you are in need of thread quickly. See the one with the grumpy old lady's portrait? That one has a special place in my heart - no we are not related. That is Lydia Pinkham; on the other side of the shuttle is an advertisement for Lydia E. Pinkham's vegetable compound aka "spring tonic". That was the nastiest stuff you could ever force down a child's throat but, starting at age eleven, my Mom made me take a spoonful every day - "good for what ails ya", the old folks would say. I think you can still get it at the pharmacies, only it's in capsule form (not fair!).