Saturday, April 2, 2011

Something I Sort Of Aspire To But Don't, Really

Today we're supposed to write about something we aspire to. Some skill we'd like to learn. Well, you all know about my thwarted desire to knit socks, so that kind of put the kibosh on today's rant. By the way, many thanks for all the comments. I now know that I'll have a career chronicling the adventures of my stickwoman, if the adventures of the gingerbread woman don't pan out. Thank you for all the advice: Quinn - I think I will start with toddler socks. And Shelley, I'll progress on to socks that I intend to keep for myself ... Thanks for the tip with the Soak Wool Wash, Marushka. Extra strength will be needed to remove all the naughty words from the stitches, but if the cursing hasn't felted them, the washing certainly won't.

Anyway, what do I aspire to? It's a tricky one. What I kind of aspire to is Irish crochet. Theoretically, in my head, I want to aspire to this. In practice, there's no reason why I shouldn't do it, except ... I couldn't be bothered. I like colours and symmetry and order and form. Irish crochet - in the traditional sense - is not really any of these things. Okay, symmetrical maybe, but in many respects it was the forerunner to monotonal freeform crochet and freeform crochet makes me itch with desire to line it up to something and even out the edges.

The funny thing is this: my sister Emily Gingerbread - who apparently looks so much like me that non-family members often have difficulty telling us apart (if I walk into a shop after she's been there, shop assistants ask if I've forgotten something) - is quite a dab hand at Irish crochet. Despite our negligible physical similarity (I'm a foot taller than her, people!!), our crochet styles are very different. Therefore I don't feel a pressing need to really try Irish crochet because my doppelgänger is already doing and doing it so well.

Don't believe me? Well, as a starry-eyed youth (i.e. before she had four kids, bless her cotton socks), she made her own wedding tunic. So in answer to today's question - what do I aspire to? - the answer is this:

Isn't my little sister clever? 

12 comments:

Voie de Vie said...

Clever, indeed!

Just a Girl said...

Wow, that is so beautiful! I bet it took her a lot of time and patience! I aspire to knit with more skill and understanding....I suppose I need to just break down and do it, instead of aspiring so much! ;D

Just a Girl said...

By the way, my husband and I were just sitting here laughing at your little comic strip, and wondering what language you and your husband speak at home? I assume it's German, since you are a teacher in Germany, and married to a German, but I am very curious to know! :)

~Just a Girl

The Gingerbread Lady said...

WHat do we speak at home?? Haha! Good question! We speak a disgracefully sloppy mixture of both:
"Willst du noch ein piece of lasagne oder can I put it back in den Ofen?"
It's the worst way to speak a language, really. If we ever have kiddies, we'll have to stick to one or other. For now, we just butcher both...

Paul & Carla said...

Your sister's tunic is lovely. Give her my best regards...

Quinn said...

Lovely work, Gingerbread Sister!

Just a Girl said...

LOL! That is so hilarious! Wow, English and German, and maybe some Irish slang thrown in too? ;oD Thanks for answering my question, it was something I had never even thought of before, and since my husband asked, I just had to know! So funny. :P

Gracey is not my name.... said...

So you speak Germlish? or what would be the equivalent with Duetlish? Not sure what English is in German. Spanglish is what we say many of our kids speak..a mixture of their home language Spanish and their school language of English....
Your sister is very talented!

Emily@theNest said...

Thank you dear sister, but just one correction needs to be made: A FOOT TALLER??? *snort*!!!! Only when you have heels on m'dear, and are standing on a large block. Otherwise, we are pretty much the same :-)

patrysia said...

Beautiful tunic!

Sadly, I was never confused with my sisters. One was The Smart One; the other was The Pretty One. I was The Other Sister, or The Leftover Sister. And yea, they're both talented in crafty ways I'm not.

Sisters....grrr......

Unknown said...

Gasp.

That is lovely.

I, too, aspire to such talent.

Handcrafter said...

Lovely tunic!

And, in our home we call it "Germlish". We speak it often, usually so we can speak about stuff in front of the kids that we don't want them to hear.