Old is new again

I had a spool knitter as a child. A spool knitter is a usually wooden tube with pegs on the top where yarn is woven around these pegs to created a knitted cord.  All kinds of things can be made with various sized spool knitters and various sized cords. 

In fact I had two knitters.  One was given to me with a collection of crafts and looked like a little soldier.


 

I also had one I made as a child with an empty wooden thread spool with 6 nails in one end.  I had taped a psychedelic sticker with my name on it (so everyone knew who owned it) around the body of the spool.  

For a long time they were in my mother’s attic.  Each still had yarn in them.  I was afraid to take the yarn out for fear of not knowing how to restring them again. As luck would have it so many years after finding them, I found a book on spool knitting as well as all kinds of information on the internet.

 So I started playing with them and I have to admit I was hooked.  Before I knew it I was carrying the spool knitter around everywhere.  I made dozens of knitted coasters in various colors.  I even found myself teaching the wonderful world of spool knitting to a group of teachers.  

spool knitted coasters

It is a calming craft.  It is a colorful craft.  It is a craft I could do without thinking much about it (I did have to watch how long my cord became so I could make table mats and not afghans from it.).  It was also a craft that gave me comfort and pleasure as a child and now as an adult. 

People laughed at me about it.  Some people reminded me that it was a child’s craft and that I was acting like a child by doing it.  Oh well, I can think of worse things to be acting like than a child.  It gives me pleasure.  And what is wrong with that. 

If there was something you did as a child that gave you pleasure, think about taking it up again. Even if it was making mud pies – just exchange the mud with clay and start making pots or sculptures.  Did you like finger paint? So take them up again, it will save you money on brushes and you can make some pretty abstract pictures with your fingers. That’s why adult coloring books are so popular right now.  It is a pleasure from childhood renewed in grown-ups.

Don’t worry what people will say.  Worry about what toy you will play with next.  Let these pleasures of childhood remind you of your dreams of what and who you wanted to be when you grew up.  Let these youthful delights take you to the person you were meant to be.  And for goodness sake, have fun.

You can find little spool knitted snakes in my etsy shop, Heartfully Cheryl.

Spool knitted Snakes

© 2016 – Cheryl Fillion