Thursday, February 5, 2009

road trip: day 1

Well, we left nice and late so we weren't rushed. We, by the way, is mothermine and me (I?). Anyway-- it feels like we invited the world-- no, just 5 other people-- but it's just us and that's okay.
I drove all day as mothermine's back is iffy right now. By the time we finally found a place to spend the night I was soooo bushed! Still I did get online for like 10 minutes before IE just quit on me. Then I ran diagnostics on it till 1am. Back up at 6am and finally got it fixed so I can blog!
While I was waiting on the computer to miraculously fix itself, as I'm no expert, I pulled out some crochet work.
No pictures now, maybe later. It's a rag rug that my aunt left unfinished when she died almost two years ago.
She used to crochet huge ones out of scraps from her sewing projects. Sistermine found one (a smaller one) unfinished and asked me to finish it for her. I got homemade marshmellows out of the deal! She's the cook/entrepreneur, I'm the artist/nice one. (Yes, she's reading this. One has to be creative when finding ways to torment one's sister from states away.)
Anyway. I've haven't picked up a crochet hook on 2 years. But I grew up watching Susie (we only called her Aunt Susie when Dad made us) make those rugs so I surprised myself by launching into double crochet without even thinking twice. I grew up watching her double crochet them. I figured out why she seemed to jerk the rugs around-- it's tough on the hands! It's not a totally silent process!
And then unbidden came a memory of sitting with her as a small, small child. She'd let me pick out which scrap went on next. Later, she let me actually connect the scraps. I thought of how much of being an artist is about which piece comes next.
Farther back, I remember a song she would sing. If sistermine were here she could probably sing it for me-- she's the musical one-- it had to do with painting a wagon. Susie would have us pick the next color of the wagon. I'm pretty sure the wagon was always supposed to be red, but she made a game of singing the song and letting us pick the color.
I'm glad that I brought it with me.

4 comments:

  1. Isn't it strange that when you are leaving home (even just for vacation) that it brings such a flood of memories from home back? Glad you got your puter fixed...and I did not know that rag rugs were crocheted!
    Have fun...you forgot to say how far you got!

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  2. I really enjoy your work. Saw you first on 1000 markets. Glad to find out you have a blog too.
    ;)

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  3. Such a wonderful memory, Sarah! Thank you so much for sharing it. You now have me flashing back on "handmade" moments with some of the women in my life :)

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  4. Sue-- not all of them are. Susie sewed some too, but her favorite method was crochet:)

    Nice to have you Lorelei!

    CD-- it was wonderful to recover it. Thank you for sharing it with me!

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