In the 6th grade, girls in my school were required to take home economics. A course taught by a woman I knew from my church. She was and still is a farmers wife and mother a career woman and sometimes a Sunday school teacher.
Mrs. Holloway taught us many handy crafty things like how to can tomatoes , make granola and properly measure wet and dry ingredients. In the fall, she brought in grapes from her own grape arbor and we went through the process of canning grape juice and closer to the holidays helped us make grape jelly to give to our parents and teachers for Christmas gifts.
She taught us how to plan a meal for a family of four (a skill which I have mastered, which means I make WAY to much food for the two people living at the Tiki Lodge). One day, she drove us all to the Ben Franklin and helped us pick out fabric to make our very own aprons without a pattern. Much to her dismay, I chose a hawiian print that was assorted neon colored leaves on a black background. She even let me design my own straps which were a criss style instead of tying in the back.
With all this wonderful education, you would think that I would have LOVED this woman and the class however, being a moody sixth grader at the time I was NOT a model student or very kind to Mrs. Holloway. Poking fun at her home made clothes and her spirit of ingenuity. I remember scoffing when she brought in a full lined suit (very sixties mod) that she had made in preparation for her son's wedding. She didn't let our snickers damage her pride or her lesson for that day and explained how she had only been able to make such a great looking garment because she had made the whole suit in muslin before. A lesson to never cut your expensive fabric until you had worked out the pattern first. (something I wish I would do more often when sewing)
One fateful day, Mrs. Holloway gave us a choice, learn to knit a dish rag or make a very ugly fabric basket. Only two of us chose the knitting and in turn our teacher sent us home with a list of items to purchase: 1 skein of sugar and cream kitchen cotton, 1 pair of size 8 needles and an empty coffee can with a hole cut in the plastic lid. My mom added to that list, a set of needle covers and let me pick out two skeins of kitchen cotton. (hurray for my first stash!!!)
I honestly cannot remember exactly how Mrs. Holloway taught us, but I do remember my yarn was peach and cream variegated and at one point the yarn got knotted up pretty badly and got stuck in the coffee can. For a time, knitting was a passion and I remember even taking my knitting on a trip to visit my grandparents in Texas and getting a thrill as I was able to knit without looking in the car therefore saving myself from carsickness.
I got a B on my dishcloth which by the way was the standard mason dixon pattern that starts out as 4 stitches, turns into a triangle of forty stitches and after decreasing makes a square rag with a delightful border of holes around the edge. I can remember the start of the pattern to me it's like riding a bike. Cast on 4, rows 1 and 2 knit, row 3 knit two yo knit to end. Repeat until you have forty stitches on the needle then begin the decrease knit 1, knit two together yo knit to end of the row repeat until there are four stitches left, cast off. Weave in the ends and give to a friend.
I have given up on the coffee can business, although truthfully sometimes I still have a problem with knots. I know now that Mrs. Holloway was a strong woman, teaching a classroom of junior high girls terrifies me but I hope that someday I will be as strong in character as she is. Until then, I"ll make sure to always use a knife to get the excess flour off a measuring cup and weave in my ends BEFORE cutting them.
Next up....How I became a born again knitter.....
