by Virginia Medina
There are some people that touch our lives that bring a great deal of joy and skill with them. There are others that seem to drain more joy than they give. I try to be there as a support system for the drainers and spend as much time as possible with those that bring joy. I feel it is important to surround yourself with positive and optimistic people to keep those same attitudes. If you are surrounded by negative pessimistic people is very easy to take on their attitudes.
My sister-in-law is a positive joy filled person. She is one of those people that help others feel better just by talking with them. She has many talents that she likes to share with others. She is a wonderful seamstress. She sewed many of the costumes for the plays that her son was in through high school.
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor,
For ‘tis the mind that makes the body rich,
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honor peereth in the meanest habit.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
She also is a wonderful quilter. Last year she learned how to make purses using wool yarn that is worsted. She gave several of the purses away as gifts. Each of us that received one also wanted to learn how to make purses. I received a smaller size bag that is ideal for going shopping or sight seeing.
I wanted to learn how to make purses myself because I thought it would be great to have one of the knitted bags to match each of my winter coats. There are so many different yarns to choose from that the color combinations and also the size you make the bags are limitless.
My sister-in-law is very patient. She agreed that she would show people how to make purses, but she wanted to do this at her house because she had all the supplies. Several of us agreed that we would come over on a Saturday morning for the lesson. We each brought the yarn and knitting needles that we needed. The bag itself is quite easy to knit.
Progress celebrates Pyrrhic victories over nature. Progress makes purses out of human skin. When people were traveling in mail coaches, the world got ahead better than it does now that salesmen fly through the air. What good is speed if the brain has oozed out on the way? How will the heirs of this age be taught the most basic motions that are necessary to activate the most complicated machines? Nature can rely on progress; it will avenge it for the outrage it has perpetrated on it.
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)
It becomes more complicated if you want to create a pattern or design in it. Once the bag is knitted you place it in boiling water. This compresses the yarn together into a very tight knit. The bag is then shaped and blocked to dry. The boiling process is what makes the wool worsted. This process shrinks the wool together. When we started knitting the bags I thought the one I was making was going to be bigger than I wanted, however once the wool was boiled and dried the purse went down in size to about half.
I am so glad that I learned this technique. They are fun to knit and make great gifts.