Hands and Heart

I've had feedback over the last few weeks about a variety of my handmade gifts that has been gratifying. It has reminded me that although handmade gifts may not be as perfect as store-bought, but they make a far greater impression and demonstrate affection far better than an easily purchased item.

Vivien says she wears her pink crocheted scarf around the house when it is cool, but she doesn't want to quite put the heat on. She's a very business-like woman, one of my former bosses, in fact. I deliberately made her scarf pink, a non-business-like colour, to celebrate her recent retirement; also because I thought it would suit her English Rose complexion.

Someone in Oklahoma asked Doris to get the pattern from me to make one of those scarves. She and Don apparently wear theirs a lot and my name gets mentioned amongst old friends when they gather.

Hazel did enjoy her homemade card and also, I think, seeing and reading about it on the internet. She said she was going to put it away and bring it out again on her birthday next year!

Joanne wrote sometime back: "I still have the Christmas ornaments your Mother made one year. We enjoy them each time they are put on the tree. For that matter, I still have the hanger you croched on over the foam you got in a Fruit-of-the-Month package and the candle stick holders that were your mothers. Many happy memories."

I'd forgotten about re-using the foam rubber packaging from the Fruit-of-the-Month boxes! That will have to have been at least 25 years ago. I told her I've been eccentric for longer than I realised...