“What’s Past Is Prologue” December 8, 2010

For the last few months, I’ve been working on this blog and trying out different Do-It-Yourself projects. During this time, I’ve learned a lot about crafting, baking, and cooking that I didn’t know before. But I’ve also learned something about myself; by extension, I’ve learned something about all of us.

There’s a mentality that pervades my generation that worries me. These days, no one cares about being able to make something for themselves. And honestly, I can understand why. It’s easy and inexpensive to just buy everything pre-made. However, ease is not the most important factor to consider. There’s also personal betterment and practicality to keep in mind.

I genuinely feel better about myself since learning these different things. It’s empowering to know that I can do things on my own. I’m more independent than I was, in a way. I don’t have to rely on other people to make my food and clothes, if I so wished.

It’s also practical to know some of these things. I could hem a skirt or pants if I needed to, or sew on a button. I could make homemade bread to go with dinner, and the cost of flour and buttermilk is far less than frozen biscuits, and will last me much longer. I have no doubt that I’ll be able to apply the skills I’ve acquired to situations all throughout my life.

So if one thing has come from this blog, I hope it’s that someone out there reading it has gained the confidence to try one of these projects themselves. Because no matter how skeptical you are at first, I have full confidence that anyone who tries will be really glad that they did. And as I said in my very first post, knowledge like this has to be passed down to us, or it will die out altogether.

On the literal side of things, this is what I’ve learned:

Making jam is a long process, but not very difficult. All it takes is some fruit, sugar, a little pectin, and a lot of patience.

Sewing a skirt is hard, and takes forever. However, if you do it well, it’s the most rewarding feeling when you’re done. Also, handheld sewing machines are nothing but junk, so don’t buy one.

Hulling out a pumpkin and making pumpkin pies from scratch is really hard work. However, it’s delicious and it’s a skill that all your family and friends can appreciate.

Making bread can be so much simpler than you would think. Flour, buttermilk, vegetable oil, viola!

Embroidery can be complicated when applied to a fabric that is seen on both sides.

Crocheting isn’t only easy and useful, but it is also good for you. It can prevent dementia and increase coordination.

I think that this is a pretty impressive list, and I feel nothing but pride when I read over my past entries here. Again, I hope that someone learned along with me, and that others will try their own DIY project(s). I’ve done my part to keep some of these talents alive. Now it’s your turn.

Forget the Knit… Crochet! November 29, 2010

This is a YouTube video I found that teaches beginners how to crochet. For anyone who’s never tried it, crocheting is probably the simplest way to make blankets, hats, scarfs, doilies, and pretty much anything else. I’ve been crocheting since I was a little kid. Granted, I almost always gave up before I finished, and the one time I did finish–remember the blanket I mentioned wayyyyy back in the first post?–turned out to be less than perfect. BUT, all that was due to either immaturity or impatience on my part. When I was young, I didn’t have the mature attention span to see a project to its end. And when I made the blanket, I didn’t use the patience necessary to keep everything perfect.

However, I do have a few tips of my own when it comes to crocheting, because apparently I’ve invented my own style that–according to Aunt Carol–is way better than the way most people crochet. You see, once a person gets to the end of their first chain, they turn around and go back down the other side and pull the yarn through two loops instead of one. On the third chain, it’s supposed to go through three, and continues to go through three until the project is done.

I don’t do it this way. When I was younger, every time I tried to crochet, whatever I was making seemed to shrink in my hands the longer I worked on it. It was because the more you crochet, the tighter the rings get. When they’re tight, they’re stiff and uncomfortable to the touch. So, when I made the blanket for my boyfriend, I shirked tradition and only pulled the yarn through one loop. The result was a much softer and more comfortable blanket.

(As a side note, I also recommend making the loops a little looser than she does in the video, unless you’re trying to make something like a sweater that can’t be the least bit see-through. Also, a bigger crochet needle works better).

Here is a video of my own handiwork:

For this blog, I’ve started on another blanket, this time for my nephew, Andrew, and his Christmas. I’ve been working on it for over a month, but because of my hectic schedule this time of year, I haven’t had much time to spare for it. However, I’ve been very careful to make the edges meet right this time around, and I can already tell that the blanket is going to be better constructed than the last one I made.

Also, I have to admit that crocheting is cathartic. Once I get into a rhythm, my mind blanks and that’s all there is. Loop, hook, pull, loop, hook, pull. It’s easy to get lost in it, and I find that I can crochet for hours and only stop when my hand starts to cramp.

There is also scientific evidence that crocheting or knitting on a regular basis is good for lifting depression and for preventing dementia in old age.

And, as the title of this post suggests, crocheting is so much easier than knitting, and gives equal results. In fact, my aunt and my grandmother both took a lot of convincing to believe that I had crocheted and not knitted the blanket I made this past summer. 

The blanket I crocheted last summer

A Stitch In Time

The latest project that I’ve completed may be one of the simplest, but I was least pleased with my results. I decided to embroider a blanket with my youngest nephew’s name, Steven, and then give it to him for Christmas. I have had a little experience with embroidery, so I wasn’t too worried.

I borrowed an embroidery ring from my aunt, and bought new needles and thread. I couldn’t find the particular thread used for embroidery, so I bought thin crochet thread instead. I was skeptical about how well that would work, but my mom and aunt said they thought  it would be fine. I also bought a green fleece blanket to contrast with the red thread and complete the Christmas theme.

When I first planned this job, I had intended to embroider a pillowcase instead. But because I’m crocheting a blanket for my nephew Andrew, I thought it would be best to also give Steven a blanket. However, I soon realized that there would be a problem with the blanket idea that I would not have had otherwise: the back side of the stitching. The back of a piece of embroidery is usually not nearly as neat and pretty as the design on the front, and on a blanket that would be very visible. So I decided that I would have to be extra neat, and also I would go over the stitching a second and third time to make mistakes less obvious.

Then I had my second problem. My mom recently got a new laptop, but the CD that installs the printer software for the printer she has was lost. So there was no way to print out the stencils that I needed for the letters. In an overly confident and impatient moment, I decided that I would wing it and freehand the letters.

The whole thing took me maybe two hours total. Making the letters even wasn’t all that hard, but keeping the back looking neat was. It took much longer to go over the lettering a few more times, but I did see an improvement in the back of the work.

The final product wasn’t bad, but I’m not thrilled with it for some reason. I feel like it’s not enough, or something. I think that before I actually package it up for him I may embroider the other corners with his name as well. But, for this project, this effort suffices. I did an admirable job considering that I didn’t have a pattern.

 

 

I’ve added a video for anyone who wants to learn how to embroider. It’s pretty simple and straightforward, and I have full confidence that this is one project anyone can do. 

 

 

A Piece of Cake…er, Bread November 2, 2010

My latest venture into the world of homemade goods has been by far the easiest. I was extremely caught off guard, considering that making bread seems like a big job. But my Aunt Carol’s homemade dobby bread—compare it to the best biscuits you’ve ever eaten, but better—is delicious, easy, and fast.

I’ve spent many years of my life drooling endlessly over my aunt’s homemade bread. It doesn’t need a thing to go with it to be mouth-watering, but butter and applesauce are added bonuses. It is, to me, the best bread in the world. I’m not exaggerating. I love this recipe so much that she always makes me breakfast one morning when I’m home from college on break. So I knew when I started this blog that one of these entries had to be about dobby bread.

We started out with two cups of Hudson Cream self-rising flour. This is important because, according to my aunt the expert, Hudson Cream is the best brand out there. So we put the flour in a big bowl and began to strategically add buttermilk. I can’t give an amount because I don’t know one. Carol says that the very best cooks don’t need to measure, so we pretty much winged the whole project. It’s a very feel-your-way-through sort of process. I can guess that the level of expertise needed only comes with lots of trial and error.

The key is to add an amount of buttermilk that makes the mixture feel sort of like wet play-dough when you work it with your hands. “You can’t work it too much because bread with leavening in it doesn’t rise well if you play with it too much,” Carol told me.

 

 

 

 

How the dough should look

 

When it was ready, we covered the bottom of a cookie sheet with vegetable oil. Olive oil works exactly the same. So, once a nice thick layer had been poured across it, we took the dough and spread it out on the pan. Once again, you have to sort of guess at the thickness you need. We made ours about a quarter-of-an-inch to half-an-inch thick. It doesn’t matter if the dough touches the edge of the pan or not.

 

 

 

 

Spreading the dough in the oil

 

Then, once it was spread gently with the tips of our fingers, we had to flip the whole thing over to wet the other side. “You can brush oil on the top, but I prefer to just flip it because I put a lot of oil in the pan to begin with. It’s easier this way,” Carol explained.

 

 

 

 

Flipping the dough

 

Once that was done, we put it in the oven at 450°. As before, the temperature is dependent on the oven, so the cook has to watch it and see what temperature is going to work best and then adjust it accordingly.

The goal is for the bread to have a nice crispy outside so that there’s a tiny crunch when you bite in. But the inside should be soft and fluffy.

While we waited for the outside to get that scrumptious golden tone, I commented that this was almost ridiculously easy. Two steps and all that deliciousness? I was already imagining gaining ten pounds from all the bread I was going to make.

Carol said in answer to my incredulousness, “I spent years slaving away making bread before I learned this recipe from my mother-in-law.”

We left the bread in the over for 20-30 minutes; I can’t be sure because we kept checking it and readjusting the timer accordingly. Carol explained about the browning of the outside, and said that it was important to check the bottom of the bread because we didn’t want that to burn before the outside crisped. “If it doesn’t brown, pull it out the last 2 minutes, run a stick of butter over the top really quick, and then put it back in.”

Also, when you take it out of the oven, flip it over one more time.

 

 

 

 

The Final Product

 

Once the bread was done, my mom, my aunt, and I dug in with absolute ardor. So good. It was especially delicious with some of my strawberry jam.

And then Carol gave me a last piece of advice, this time about keeping the bread from drying out before the rest of the meal was done, if I was making other things. She said to put a clean dish towel over the bread. That keeps the air from getting to it, but still lets it “breathe.”

I think that I relished the end result of this project the most, though I might be prouder of the skirt or the pies. But this was so easy and so worth it that it’s hard not to be excited.

Pie, Pie, and More Pie October 19, 2010

This weekend was my Fall Break, and I took advantage of the time at home with my mother to get her help with making a from-scratch pumpkin pie.

For as long as I can remember and probably before, my mom has always used the “meat” of our Halloween jack-o-lanterns to make delicious pumpkin pies. Because of that, I always cringe when I see people waste good pumpkins by letting them rot on their front porches, and then go out and buy pumpkin in a can to make their pies. It’s irresponsible environmentally and perpetuates the stereotype of wasteful Americans who throw away good food when people in other parts of the world are starving. So I wanted to do my part and conserve and utilize all the parts of my jack-o-lantern.

My first order of business was of course to buy a pumpkin. I took my 6-year-old nephew to a local grocery store to help me pick one out. We had been sent with instructions from my mom to get one that was short, fat, and really orange; she says that the taller and “more yellow” a pumpkin is, the less the taste.

After we found one according to her specifications, we followed it up by buying a dozen eggs and two cans of condensed milk. We were supposed to get the unsweetened kind, but Mom had neglected to tell us this because she assumed it would be obvious. It wasn’t, so we ended up having to compensate a little bit later on.

Once home, my nephew described the kind of face he wanted drawn on his jack-o-lantern, and I tried to follow his instructions as best as I could. He decided on large “ghost” eyes and a mouth with lots of little pointy teeth.

My nephew showing off his scary Halloween face and the jack-o-lantern

The next item on the agenda was to hull out the pumpkin. I went in prepared with the knowledge that this would be laborious, but I was still a little exhausted by the end.

First, I cut a circle around the top of the pumpkin, making sure to give it a “lip” so that the top of the jack-o-lantern would fit back on without falling in. Then, I pulled all the seeds and goopy strings out by hand. This was a little gross, but the hard part was trying to detach some of the strings from the inside walls and floors. I used my hands, a large metal spoon, and a knife.

Seeds and goopy stuff that doesn't go in the pie

Once that was done, I had to find a way to remove the good, inside layer of the pumpkin for cooking. I initially used a knife, trying to cut big chunks from the inside “walls.” Because of the curvature and the small hole, though, that failed pretty quickly. So, instead, I took the big metal spoon and scraped it from the bottom of the inside wall to the top over and over again, all the way around. This left me with piles of tiny shredded pieces. I ended up with enough to make about three pies.

The "meaty" part of the pumpkin that I scraped from the inside

The next thing that I did was put the pumpkin scrapings in a pot on the stove on low heat. My mom explained that this was to “break it down” from the strings. After the pumpkin turned a bright yellow and was mushy to the touch, I used a mixer to create something with the consistency of chunky applesauce.

Cooking the pumpkin to break it down from the strings

While this was cooking, I took some time to cut out the jack-o-lantern for my nephew. I would like to point out that this is another good reason to use the pumpkin “meat”—cutting out the face is a lot easier when the pumpkin is thinner (the walls have been shaved from the inside).

Then it was time to add milk to the pot, and that’s when we found out I had bought the wrong kind. My mom insisted that it would be okay, that we would just add some skim milk with it to compensate. However, I added too much. Because I had been insisting on doing everything by myself because this “was my project,” she didn’t realize my mistake for several minutes. The mixture was too thin, she said, so we’d have to add some canned pumpkin to even it out.

I admit, I was pretty dejected by this. I had wanted to do everything completely on my own and completely from scratch. But I guess that mistakes are part of the process, and I’ll know better next time.

I was also getting a little frustrated with my nephew at this point. Now that the fun jack-o-lantern part was over with, he was bored. And when he’s bored, he bounces off the walls with that endless supply of energy that all kids that age seem to have. At any other point I would have been fine with his antics, but I felt that since I was going to be reporting on my cooking to the world, I needed a little bit more space to concentrate. So I recommend putting the pumpkin in the refrigerator for a while until peace and quiet can be had, because the noise added to my stress level considerably.

After we added a can of already-mashed pumpkin to the pot of hulled pumpkin, we added some brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, corn starch, vanilla, and three eggs. I would give a more detailed recipe, but this is my mom’s secret formula to a perfect pumpkin pie, and she doesn’t feel like sharing.

While all of that was kept on very low heat, I started to make four pie crusts (because of the can, we now had enough mix for one more pie). I took a can of Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening and scooped out one and a half cups of it to add to four cups of all-purpose flour. Two teaspoons of salt were also added. Then, I had to use my hands to mix it all together until it “was the consistency of cornmeal”—this was my instruction. For those of you who don’t know what that is, like me, the closest thing I can describe the texture to is tiny, soft beads.

Then I added 10 tablespoons of water. Again, I mixed it all in with my hands, and stopped when it felt like Play-Dough. I had to continue to add a tablespoon of water each time I went back to make a new crust.

I took a piece of this dough that rolled into a ball with about a two-and-a-half inch diameter. I rolled this ball around in flour, and then began to flatten it on wax paper with my hands. After it was as flat as I could make it doing that, I took a rolling pin (covered in flour so it wouldn’t stick) and made a thin, flat circle. The edges of this circle had a tendency to shred, so I had to constantly pinch them together. Also, I had to occasionally sprinkle more flour on the dough.

Rolling the dough to make a crust

When it was flattened to my mom’s satisfaction, I put a pie pan on top of it upside down. Then I carefully slid my hand under the wax paper and flipped the whole thing over. I cut the edges of the crust to fit the pan, and then made “ruffles” on the rim for aesthetic purposes. Finally, I ladled the pumpkin into the crust and browned the crust in the oven at 425° for 15 minutes. Then, I covered the crust with aluminum foil and baked the pie at 350° for 45 minutes.

I repeated all the steps for the crust three more times.

This, as you can probably tell, was not easy. It was probably harder for me than the sewing was, even though the sewing took longer and was more tedious. I don’t know if it was because the process is harder, or if it was the stress of having my mom watch what I did and critique things, and my nephew being a typically loud child. I think it was probably a little of everything. But I had less fun with this project that I had with the other two. However, it was good to do some bonding with my family anyways.

The pies are wonderful and I’m really proud of myself. Also, this is probably a life skill that will come in handy more often than the sewing or the canning will. So it was very worth my while, and I’m extremely glad that I know how to do it.

One of the four pies after it was baked

As a side note, there’s a really good way to make use of the pumpkin seeds too. You boil the seeds in saltwater for ten minutes, and then put a layer of them in the oven on a baking sheet with olive oil until they brown. The temperature should be about 400°. When they’re done, they’re nice and yummy, like sunflower seeds.

Sew, Sew October 12, 2010

It turns out that sewing is not as easy as making jam. And it takes a lot longer, too. However, I’m so proud of my results that it was completely worth the effort.

I went to the store last week with the intention of buying an embroidery ring and some other supplies to embroider a pillow case. But Wal-Mart didn’t carry embroidery tools, and I didn’t feel like driving to Michaels, so I decided to change my game plan and do some real sewing first.

The patterns at the store ranged from any type of shirts, pants, and skirts, to hats and purses as well. I initially decided to try a purse, because it looked a little bit easier than some of the other options, and I didn’t want to get in over my head. Then I considered the intent of this whole experience, and I opted to challenge myself a little bit more. I wanted to know if I could do it, and I wanted to have something impressive to show for it when I was done.

So I picked the pattern for a long skirt with ruffles on the bottom. The picture on the front looked like something I would actually wear, and that made me excited to do my best.

The instructions on the back included a few things that I really had no idea about. What’s twill tape ? A hook and eye? It was an extremely confusing layout, and I panicked a little bit. I called my aunt, and she explained a few things to me, and that helped. I also had the sales clerk find the twill tape, since I really was clueless. Then I picked a fabric, and got two yards of it. The pattern only called for one and a half, but I knew I would probably mess up at least once.

I also bought a tiny handheld sewing machine. I had wanted to buy one for a year, and it was only fifteen dollars, so I assumed it would be worth the investment.

I woke up around 9:30 on Saturday morning and opened the pattern. I’d never seen one before, so my reaction was to be utterly panicked. What? It didn’t make any sense to me. It was one sheet of thin paper that unfolded into a huge square. There were all sorts of drawings and numbers on it, and I assumed those were the pieces. What I couldn’t figure out was how I was supposed to get that pattern onto the fabric. Did I lay it on top and try to draw it or something? It was awful.

Pattern

After staring at everything dumbly for about five minutes I had an epiphany. I was supposed to cut out the paper pieces that I needed and lay them on top of the fabric. Genius!

So I figured out which pieces went with the particular skirt I wanted to make (four came with the pattern) and cut them out carefully in the smallest size. Then I spent about ten minutes scouring the instructions to see how many of each piece I was supposed to cut. I finally realized that the pattern paper itself gave the number inside each piece.

Pattern Pieces

During this process I had another question, this time about interfacing. The instructions mentioned for several of the pieces, “Cut 2, 1 of interfacing.” What’s interfacing? Google had the answer. Basically, interfacing is like a liner. I didn’t need or want one of those, so I ignored that part.

I tacked each of the pattern pieces to the fabric while I was cutting them. When that was all done, I excitedly brought out my new sewing machine and started to put things together. It took me about two hours until I was ready to throw the piece of junk at the wall. It was useless. I’ve never been more disappointed by a product. It wouldn’t sew for more than ten seconds at a time, and when I did manage to finish something, a little tug and it would all fall apart. So I trashed the machine and started to sew by hand.

After doing the first three pieces, I realized I had attached one backwards and had to undo it and start over. I also realized for one of the pieces that I was supposed to cut it out facing one way, and cut another one of he same type from the other side of the fabric, so I had to redo it; I was thankful to have the extra half yard of fabric.

I hit a groove then, though, and didn’t have much trouble after that. It took a long time to do by hand, but by Monday evening I had a completed product.

Front

Back

 

 

It looks great, by far the best thing I have ever made. I feel like I could have bought it in a store. The only thing I did wrong is that somehow, one of the pieces I cut out, I didn’t use. I don’t know where it was supposed to go. But there’s nothing missing, so I don’t know what happened. I did stop reading the directions after a point, but you couldn’t tell it by looking at the skirt.

 

It’s also sturdy. I could machine wash it without it coming apart. All the edges are hemmed and pretty, and the seams are tight and neat. I’m so proud of it. The next cool fall day that we have, I’m definitely going to wear it.

Jamming on Along October 2, 2010

Well, I completed my first venture into the world of homemade goods, and at the moment I’m pretty excited about it. Today I made my first two jars of homemade strawberry jam.

I have been scouring the web for over a week looking for the right recipe, and it didn’t take long for me to have my first “What?” moment, either. I discovered the existence of something called pectin, which almost all the recipes call for. It turns out that pectin, as defined by www.dictionary.com , is “a white, amorphous, colloidal carbohydrate of high molecular weight occurring in ripe fruits, esp. in apples, currants, etc., and used in fruit jellies, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics for its thickening and emulsifying properties and its ability to solidify to a gel.” Apparently, most jams require a bit of added pectin because most fruits don’t have a sufficient natural amount to make them congeal.

At first, I was very against using this, mainly because I doubted that in “the olden days” my great-grandmother ran out to the closest super market to pick up a box of Sure-Jell. However, after talking to my aunt about the subject, I kind of changed my mind. Store-bought pectin has been around for a while, and it’s pretty hard to make a thick jam without any (with the exception of apples, which has plenty of natural pectin).

The recipe I finally decided on didn’t call for pectin, but lemon juice instead (acids have a similar effect on jam). But after reading the comments on the recipe, a lot of people who had tried it complained of having too thin a jam, so I bought a box anyways.

I also bought a first-time jam-maker’s kit at Wal-Mart that included three mason jars and one plastic rack to lift the jars out of hot water. I bought a small box of sugar, three 1 lb packs of strawberries, a big pot (you need two and I only had one), a potato masher, and a funnel.

So, at 7 a.m., I got up and washed, de-stemmed, and hulled my strawberries. I then washed all my jars and lids and put them in a pot on medium heat. After that, I put my strawberries in a second pot—sans water— set on medium/low heat and began to squish them with the potato masher. That was probably the hardest part, and I was grateful that I had taken the advice of various people on the internet and bought the masher. I crushed the berries until they were mostly liquefied, with small pieces of fruit.

the strawberries after I crushed them with a potato masher

I added a little bit more than three cups of sugar to the mix after a few minutes. I was trying to make the ratio of fruit to sugar equal to that of the recipe, but I think I may have added a little bit too much. But sweet jam is good, so I think it will be okay.

While the jam heated, I stirred and skimmed all the foam off the top as it accumulated. I really stressed out over the foam because all of the recipes mentioned it specifically. The hardest part was trying to get the foam without taking too much of the good jam mix.

I let it boil for about twenty minutes, and then decided I was going to add a little pectin. I added probably a tablespoon full. You could tell immediately that it thickened up some. I let it cook another five minutes or so, then did the ‘Is it ready?’ test. The test involved leaving a spoon and glass plate in the freezer while cooking, then taking it out and spooning a little bit of the jam onto it. Wait a few minutes, then if I like the consistency when I poke it, it’s done. I did the test twice before I was satisfied.

Then I was ready for the jars. The point of the jars—and really the whole canning process—is to be able to preserve the jam without putting it in the refrigerator so you can give it as gifts, etc. So I took the jars out of the water and began to funnel the jam into the jars. I only had enough for two. After screwing the lids back on, I put them back in the pot with the boiling water and boiled them for fifteen minutes.

jam jars in boiling water

After that, it was just a matter of waiting. I was so nervous that the lids wouldn’t “pop,” which would mean I did something wrong. The first one popped within a minute. The second one took closer to five, but they both sealed up.

The Final Product

I did deviate from the instructions a bit, but I think it will turn out fine in the end. Mainly, I didn’t do the pectin part the way I should have. It was supposed to go in before the sugar, but I don’t think it matters much.

As a side note, if someone does this and the jar doesn’t pop, just refrigerate it and it should be fine. I just wanted it to pop because I wanted to make sure and do it the “right” way.

I’m extremely proud of myself. I am so anxious for it to cool and set so I can try it. I tasted a spoonful before I canned them, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be delicious. I’m definitely going to do this again, maybe as Christmas presents for different people in my family. It should be much less expensive the second time around because all I’ll have to buy is the strawberries.

There are also some really pretty ways to dress up the jars. I plan on buying some cute fabrics to secure around the lids with a ribbon if I give any jam away.

Overall, the process wasn’t that hard. It was on the expensive side, but like I said, it won’t be next time. It took me about two and half hours for the whole thing. It takes constant attention and patience, but I found it to be much simpler than I expected.

Now I’m hoping that sewing will be this easy.

Intro to the Retro September 24, 2010

I consider myself to be an intelligent and resourceful woman with quite a few home-making skills that a lot of other people my age do not have. For instance, during Christmas last year I made my boyfriend a fleecy Washington Redskins pillow as one of his gifts; I know how to sew on a button; I have crocheted a blanket before; and I’m fairly proficient in the kitchen whenever I have the time to try.

 

 

 

The Redskins pillow I made last year

 

However, there are so many skills that my mother, my aunt, and my grandmother (along with a lot of women their age) possess that I do not.

Before I came to college, my grandmother made me a gorgeous quilt that I have used as a bedspread all three years now. My aunt makes her own jellies, jams, and sauces from an apple tree in her back yard. My own mother can cook anything from scratch, even if she does sometimes use shortcuts when she’s pressed for time. I would not even know how to begin with any of those things.

I’m also not terribly efficient with the skills that I do have. I can crochet a blanket, it’s true, but it is anything but a perfect square when I finish. And that Redskins pillow? I was at a loss as to how to sew the fourth edge around the pillow, so I ended up doing a knotty style that looks a lot like the edge of a fleece blanket. I tried embroidering when I was little, but soon gave up. I can cook, but not from scratch.

Of course, I don’t know how to do these sort of things because they’re not necessities any more. Being able to make things for yourself has become a lost art for me, and my generation. If we don’t begin to pick up on these skills, before long no one will know how to do things for themselves.

There is also great satisfaction that comes from making something with your own hands. Henry D. Thoreau argued in his famous novel Walden that people should be self-sufficient, and that true enjoyment of life can only be had that way:

“There is some of the same fitness in a man’s building his own house that there is in a bird’s building its own nest. Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so engaged? But alas! We do like cowbirds and cuckoos, which lay their eggs in nests which other birds have built, and cheer no traveler with their chattering and unmusical notes. Shall we forever resign the pleasure of construction to the carpenter? What does architecture amount to in the experience of the mass of men? … Where is this division of labor to end? And what object does it finally serve? No doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.”

So I’m going to take some initiative and do my part to keep alive some of the lost arts of our grandmothers. And as I try each one of these antiquated skills, I’m going to write about it here and post pictures of my results.

Hopefully this blog will not only help me achieve my own goals, but maybe it will help inspire other women of my generation to follow suit.