Serendipity

I was out and about on foot today doing this and that and on the

long walk home discovered that I had walked much, much further

that I had originally intended.  What's more I was rather foolishly

wearing brand new shoes which hadn't yet been broken to the bit

let alone a saddle, so as I hobbled past the library I decided to nip

in for a quick sit down and a read of the newspapers to give my

barking dogs (Cockney speak for sore feet) a brief rest before I

lurched the rest of the way back to the Lock-Up.

That's better, those heels were a bit high.

Seemed like a plan but what I hadn't bargained for, or even knew

about, was the monthly meeting of the craft club in the main foyer.

"Come and join us" cried someone.  They're a friendly bunch and it

would have been churlish to decline,.  So it was a couple of hours,

umpteen cups of strong rosie and several new friends later that I

finally returned home footsore and knackered.

At the club I met one very well turned out lady (don't ask me what

I had thrown on, the style police are still on red alert) knitting socks

on four needles with some baffling new verigated German wool.

The finished work looked like she'd been following a complicated

Fair Isle pattern even though she hadn't.  Don't ask me how it worked

but it did and it's now high on my list of things to try when I'm next

at a loose end.

That sort of thing but bigger and jumbled up.

Another very experienced quilter was recycling a pair of old double

duvet covers - one Union Jack, the other Stars & Stripes - and the

Anglo-American result was quite amazing with an intricate border of

blocks - one stars, one stripes, all the way round the edge.

Every self-respecting crafter should wear one.

You can often tell a crafter by the way they dress and one young lass

certainly didn't disappoint.  Crochet handbag decorated with a heart

of buttons, pendant with a petit point ballerina insert, woven friendship

bracelets and a nifty hand-felted hat.  The perfect specimen.  She was also

a yarn bomber and was busily lagging an old supermarket basket in

brightly coloured wool as we spoke.

Not the actual bench but along the same lines.

But what really touched me was when she talked about her father in

whose memory the family had placed a bench on the village green

under the Folly Tree.  On his birthday she had "bombed" his bench as

an act of remembrance and not feeling inclined to stop there she had

also hung crochet motifs and streamers from the branches that shaded it

too.  How lovely is that?

Old crafters never die, they just have a few more pleats.

I leave the best till last.  The elderly lady of 83 sitting next to me hand 

stitching some templates looked like everyone's favourite granny but 

the way she had coped with the  problems life had recently heaped on

her was truly inspirational.  She had dutifully nursed her husband suffering

from Parkinson's right to the end with scant help, difficult and often

abusive behaviour from him and little regard for her own well being.

Here she is on a singles holiday to Margate.

After his death she said she felt enormous guilt that she should have done

more and because men of that generation often controlled the finances

she had that side of life to get to grips with as well as overcoming a

huge dent that had appeared in her self confidence too.  And then she said,

and I quote: "I thought sod it dear.  It may sound wicked but I'm

starting to like it on my own so I shall concentrate on all the things

I can still do and not worry about the ones I can't."

Just concentrate, never mind what you still can do.

And that's precisely what she's done.  She's joined lots of clubs and

societies, sold the car because there's people to talk to on the bus and

been on more holidays these past 18 months than in the whole of her

long married life.  All on her own too and that takes courage at any age.

"The world isn't going to come looking for me dear, so I must go looking

for the world."  She's my kind of a woman and no mistake.

I shall certainly be at next month's meeting clutching my craft bag full

of good intentions and raring to go.