Keeping Fingers Busy

Keeping my fingers busy keeps me sane. Truly it does. Just sitting is horrible to me. The only time I just sit is when I am reading; any other time I may have a movie on or be talking to someone but my fingers are working on something.

Right now I'm busy crocheting. Since the 28th December I've been working on tea towels and hanging tea towels because they're portable projects. Of course I took my crochet away with me, lots of time in the car to work a tea towel or two and of course plenty of time around the camp fire to create.

Our camper needed some new tea towels, pot holders and hanging hand towels, so that's what I've been working on.

The tea towels I used were from my stash, bought on sale a while ago. The cotton I used to crochet the tops was a bargain, again from the stash, and bought from Arthur Dayley's, a discount store here in Melbourne, for $2.48 a ball. The middle of the pot holders is old bathmats (properly washed and dried in the sun - the best laundry sanitiser ever) that we no longer use.

It's relaxing to sit and crochet (or knit or cross-stitch or make cards or whatever) and listen to a pod cast or just put some music on in the background, or perhaps even a movie, but so many women, especially full-time homemakers, feel that they are slacking off when they do this.

They're not, you're not, I'm not. Keeping fingers busy is relaxing, but while I'm crocheting a tea towel or embroidering a set of hankies or knitting a rug or making cards I am also working on making something useful and pretty for our home, something that would otherwise have been bought, often at a much higher cost than what I can make it for.

This is a part of my homemaking duties. Don't go getting all uppity when I say that, it's just a term, we share the homemaking duties and responsibilities in our house; what you do in yours in up to you.

Summer is the perfect time to do these things. It's hot. It's sticky. And working outdoors is unpleasant. So work indoors. Keep your fingers busy adding to your present box or creating things you can sell (Wendy at My Abundant Life has a Facebook group for selling handmade crafts, Cottage Crafts for Sale  and I will be adding some of my items to the group very soon) to boost the family coffers, or make your home more comfortable. Just don't feel guilty when you sit to keep your fingers busy.

What I'm saying is don't think that you are wasting time when you sew a dress for your little girl or crochet trim on face washers for the bathroom (makes them last years longer) or whip up a pot holder from an old pillowcase. 

 

You're not. 

 

You are adding comfort and value to your home; you are working as a homemaker. You are not slacking off and if anyone dares to say so, gently and calmly point out what you are doing to improve your home and help your budget, that you are not being slack or lazy, but are working - gently and calmly, for the benefit of your family and home.