your friendly neighborhood yarn pusher

So, this past weekend, I was at the Virginia this past weekend with my reenacting group. One of the other groups there is portraying British troops from the 1880s/90s; I made some Victorian corsets for the gals in the group a few years ago. Anyway... Amanda, the daughter of the head of the Victorian unit, is about 14 (I think), and reminds me a lot of me -- precocious, very into textile arts, and probably a better seamstress than I was at that age. She's got a drop spindle (I introduced her to spinning last year at this event), and is teaching herself how to knit (gave her some pointers on that, too).

So I brought a bunch of my lace knitting books to look through, loaned her one of them, and gave her some Jaggerspun Zephyr and a pair of Brittany needles. Her mom said, half-teasing, "You're not helping!", meaning that Amanda already has too many hobbies. Hey, I can't help it. Besides, sitting in camp and knitting a Shetland lace shawl would be an appropriate activity for her. (Lace knitting isn't period for my era, alas, so I sit in camp knitting stockings and highland bonnets.)

Yeah, I'm bad. But I remember being 14. It's such an awkward age. I really appreciated it when people took me seriously and showed me how to do stuff.