Home Ec

Click on picture to see enlarged version

Is Home Economics even a required course for girls anymore?  I can remember my 8th grade Home Ec teacher quite clearly.  Miss Clark.  The first half of the year we did sewing arts and the second half of the year we did cooking.  I can still hear Miss Clark’s voice in my head every single time I plate up food – admonishing us to make our meals pleasing to the eye, as well as the palate.  No all beige food was her credo. 

I was better at the cooking than I ever was at the sewing.  As is the case these days, still.  I want to sew, to embroider, to knit and I do have a basic grasp of the skills but it isn’t intuitive to me.  And I’m afraid to admit I’m really impatient.  I want the end result NOW.  That’s why my projects tend to be small so I can whip them out quickly before my spirit lags. 

I’m dying for this line of fabric by Heather Bailey to be available.  I might even be convinced to make an entire bed sized quilt with colorway 2.  When I look at the pictures on her website I want to crawl right into the picture and rest my cheek on any one of those stacks of fabric. 

The picture above is my mother’s Home Ec class some time in the mid to late 30’s.  She’s the one mid stitch with her hand pulling the thread taut.  She was quite accomplished in the domestic arts.  She was a fabulous cook for one and very adventuresome.  She was making turkey mole in our 60’s suburban neighborhood when the rest of the kids on the block were eating Chef Boyardee.  She took French cooking classes and I can remember sitting in front of our old black and white television with her watching Julia Child.  I think the Las Vegas tag line of ‘"what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" was stolen directly from Julia.  There was an episode where she dropped an entire chicken or something like that on the floor and she just looked straight at the camera and said something to the effect that no one needs to be privy to ALL the goings on in the kitchen.  Then she dusted off the chicken and put it on a serving platter.

My mother was also a very accomplished knitter.  I can knit flat things.  Like a scarf.  Or a…scarf.  She would do entire sweaters.  I can remember a sweater she knit for me that I got to design.  I selected the yarn, a marled turquoisy green with flecks of all kinds of other color twisted in.  I wanted a big daisy on the front of it.  She knit the sweater then commisioned a neighbor down the street to crochet the daisy which she then appliqued on.  That was one beautiful sweater.

I actually pulled out my knitting last week only to discover I lost one of my knitting needles.  I crank out one scarf every 18 months or so.  By the time I finish it I am so sick of the yarn I can’t bring myself to wear it.  The trick (aside from working a lot faster) is to get really fabulous yarns to work with.  The colors and textures have to be swoon worthy in order to keep my interest.  My current project is a pale pink chenille type yarn from England that I’m knitting with a carry along eyelash yarn in ivory. 

I’ll get right back to this project just as soon as I find that knitting needle.

I would love to learn how to crochet but there aren’t any crocheters in our family.  My grandmother tried to teach me but finally told me I was too tense and was making my stitches too tight and that I might consider taking up another hobby instead.  I’m also left handed which makes it trickier to learn.  Can you teach yourself to crochet?  I’m more of a monkey see monkey do learner but I suppose I could try. 

The real reason I want to learn how to crochet is because I need want this.