Pot holders

Have you ever made a potholder? You know those rag circles that you loop over and under and through other rag circles, then, like magic intertwine all the loops that are on the loom over and through each other, and you have a pot-holder? An ugly potholder?

I had one of those looms -- I got it for Christmas when I was six or seven. I know Grandma Aspling gave it to me. Mom got me the rag loops -- you could get a bag of them, just like you can today. Mom showed me how to put the first loops on, then using the special hook provided with the loom, to thread other loops throw perpendicular to the first set of loops put on the loom. Unfortunately, there were never enough of any two colors to make a two-color potholder, which to me would have been not too bad to look at. No, they had maybe three brown loops, 16 red loops, 13 yellow loops (you needed at least 16 of each color), etc. So, the potholder was always ugly.

My mom, who received potholders as gifts never let on to us how ugly they were. I mean, they even had black loops. Back then the loom cost $.98 and you could get a bag of loops for $1. Now for the small price of $12.95 you can order a loom from the Internet. A bag of loops costs $4.98. So, I suppose for the cost of only $17.93 you could make a lovely (translated ugly) potholder for a loved-one. But why bother? You can get two fairly nice looking potholders for $1 at Dollar Tree.

So what, you say? I know, I'm thinking the same thing. So what is that I remembered it!

Then I remembered other "crafty" toys we had: one was like a spool -- a large spool -- around the edge of which were equally space nails. You would pull a piece of yarn (from a ball of yarn) up through the hole in the bottom of this spool, then loop the yarn around each nail, going back and forth until you had two layers, then you'd unhook the bottom layer of yarn pulling it over the top layer. Then you'd layer it again. What did you get? A long rope-like yarn thing, good for nothing, but it kept a child occupied for hours. The spool loom was like the pot-holder looper only on a much smaller scale, and the item you got after you finished looping was worthless. At least you could use the potholder after you finished making it. You can find out all about this craft by going to http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/tips/spool-knit.htm. It's called French knitting. And it shows a "knitting spool." One website says you can make a hot-pad with the fruits of your labor with a knitting spool. I think it was just used to keep me and my siblings occupied.

Do any of you remember sewing cards? You can still get sewing cards -- in fact Dollar Tree had them in stock for many months last year. They came 12 to a box with a needle and yarn. Instant child amusement. Not!

Any way, for those of you who don't know what a sewing card it, it was a way to teach a child how to handle needle and thread and then stitch. Needless to say the needle was not sharp, usually made of plastic or wood (we did have plastic back in the 40s and early 50s), and the thread was really yarn.

A child could thread the needle easily with the yarn because the needle was quite large, and then s/he would move the needle point to a dot on the card, push the needle through to the underneath of the card, then push the needle back through by following the dots on the bottom of the card. When you finished you had a picture of something, a horse, a cat, a dog, a house. I guess it was more like embroidery than stitching, now that I think about it.

The difference between then and now is that I loved to amuse myself with such items, but my grandchildren seem to be only interested as long as I'm showing them how to use these "toys". Give them the chance to stitch a card, and it's "Do you have anything else I can do Me-mom?"

Life goes on.