HABITS, A PLACE TO START

Last week for a practical skills homeschool lesson we pulled a worn and loved flannel from my bottom draw and turned it into a smock for the baby. Woven through explanations for bias and grain line and thread tension was a reminder of how powerful it can be to take something into your hands and work it into a new and useful existence. Recently I mended a mitten's sizable hole in less than a minute for a boyskier who was running late to the mountain. You might have thought I laid an egg, I clucked so at my own cleverness when the thing could be stretched over a wriggling hand without unraveling further. But isn't it actually really thrilling? To take a problem in your hands and resolve it simply and effectively, with practicality and whatever else might be on hand? I think so at least.

As mending has found itself in a moment that sometimes feel more inclined to spotlight an aesthetic rather than a conservation of resources, I'm pulled to dive deeper into my own habits- both in terms of mending and making. Isn't it easy to consume, consume, consume, even in the simplest of habits? Bellow, a list of where to start while mulling further.

A woman's markedly boring accounting of items left unfinished (or un-begun) over the last however long:

-A baby's first birthday quilt in need of quilting; binding, too. (I love this project; worry over messing it up has me stalled.)

-A fussy shawl (it is so fussy)(likely frustratingly small, too)(that I haven't finished it makes sense, I think).

-A knitted cotton bib seeking edging, button.

-A cabled sweater, unfinished for years, short on yarn, will likely unravel, am mostly at peace with that outcome. Mostly.

-An as yet not begun quilt for Gus who will be 10 in the late summer. Have amassed vibrant pile of thrifted linen to work with.

-An oversized coat, cut from a secondhand quilt.

-A cropped cardigan made from wild wool originally intended for Gus, now inherited by me (the wool, not the cropped sweater)

-A pile of long abandoned quilt squares in various stages of completion, for our bed

-A length of rust red fabric, hopefully enough for a dress