My two-year-old Ella and I ‘play buttons’ a lot. We pour the big jar out onto a blanket, sort the buttons, pick out our favorites, and make up stories about them. The biggest ones are the daddies, the middle-sized ones are the mamas, and the small ones are the children. She said, “Mama, I pickted out your favorite buttons.” Sweetie!
I usually sit down with some knitting or notes, because Ella goes off into her own button world, where she doesn’t need me.
So there I sat, playing buttons, when I noticed a box that had been sitting there a while. I could quickly clean it out and clear a spot on the floor. My red bag was on the top, full of knitting magazines I need to read. But what was that smell? Ugh. It was the smell of something dead.
I moved the books a little, and saw a scaly, flat, smelly thing in the bottom of the bag. “What’s the matter?” my husband asked. “There is a dead snake in this bag,” I told him.
He took my bag outside and dumped it. Oh, it was about a foot long, probably a young Glossy Snake or King Snake, broken in two. I must have left my bag outside long enough for it to get in. When I picked it up, the magazines and papers trapped it inside. Poor baby!
What?! Did you think I meant a knitted snake? I did knit one many years ago for my brother. Mom, do you know where that snake is? Maybe I will post a photo of it later.
The last few days, I have been preparing teaching proposals for the brand new DFW Fiber Fest (late April 2006) and the Wool Festival at Taos (October 2006), and Stitches in 2006. I’m developing a new workshop called “Cables, Bobbles, and Braids,” and I have started knitting the class samples. This is one.
Among other things, I plan to teach how to design a cable sweater and how to design a cable of your own! Should be good!