New Skill to the Craftless

If you look though my mom's photo albums, you will see chubby-cheeked Christmas pictures of me holding up my hands to model the newly knitted gloves that my Me-Me made especially for me each year. She also always made a scarf and a hat to match. . I'm sure that each year, after the picture was snapped, I would take them off and search for a wrapped goodies that looked like a toy. As a kid, you don't really appreciate the work that someone puts into an annual gift like that.

As I grew older, I learned to think much more of those made-with-love gifts from Me-Me and from other talented folks. But I, the one with all the thumbs, was not one to attempt such a time-consuming trick as that. Until today...

A few of the crafty moms from my church held a knitting and crocheting day and I (gasp) attended AND participated. (Certain family members of mine just either laughed or fainted from sheer amazement.) Today I started to learn to knit, but I learned a whole lot more...

Scarlett is crafty. She spent many hours hanging out with Me-Me. For her, today was a fun refresher course. For me, it was an exercises in humility and I'm so glad that Scarlett was there. Many times, our kids only see us succeed, they only see us in our element. Scarlett had a great time asking me how I was doing and encouraging ME in something that SHE was good at. She was also able to witness me messing up repeatedly, having to ask for help and sticking with the project, even though it was hard for me.

The other thing that excited me today was witnessing my friends excel. Often, my crafty buddies are the quiet ones. They rarely draw attention to themselves, but today, during these craft circles, these ladies were the experts, the ones called upon, the ones instructing novice crafters and they did it with ease.

I have to point out one of my teachers today because her ability was so apparent to me. My friend Tiffany is an excellent teacher. There are many people who are proficient at a task, but struggle to explain how do to that task to someone else. Today, I witnessed, first hand, Tiffany's skill as well as her ability to replicate that skill. She is an amazing teacher. She is so encouraging and fun that you can't help but want to be around her and try the things that she does. Why? Because she tells you that you can.

Thank you to all the ladies who helped today. (Especially Livin' Life, hope you feel better!) I can't wait until next time. I've been practicing. It ain't pretty, but I'm not giving up.