Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better......

I am still straightening.... I was organizing my kumihimo supplies into as few boxes as possible. Tessie was helping by picking out pieces that she wanted...Big help.

Suddenly she started humming....That's always a bad sign of things to follow. She kept getting a little louder and a little louder still. Then she broke out, sounding like Ethyl Merman, into a chorus of "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better!" Some of you probably never heard of "Annie Get Your Gun!". I know. Tessie is dating herself with that one, but you have to remember that she is way older than the rest of us....

I let her sing for a while. Actually her Merman impression isn't bad....If you like Merman.

Then, fool that I am, I asked her why she was singing that particular song. Big mistake.

"I have been watching you do that Kumihimo stuff.", she said. Then she continued with, "It doesn't look that hard. I'll bet that I could do it if I had a disk. Don't you think so?"

I knew where this was leading. I handed her a piece of fun foam, a 1/8" punch, some scissors and a pencil and said, "Have at it!"

Darned if she didn't jump down from her director's chair, dig through the change jar and grab a nickle. She proceeded to trace around the nickle with a pencil and then punch a hole in the center with the 1/8" punch. As I watched, she cut divided the circle into eight sections, like a pie. Then in each of those sections she drew three marks. That made 32 marks in all. She then cut out the circle with a small pair of scissors and clipped about a sixteenth of an inch in on all of the 32 lines. Amazing. She has been paying attention.

She then cut four pieces of tatting thread to about a foot long, two blue and two pink, and tied the center with a slip knot.

She did that with contrasting thread. On that thread(green) she tied a couple of jump rings for weight and stuck that end down through the center hole.

She expertly lined up the threads and anchored them in the opposing slots.

I will just give you this U tube site for beginning instructions. It's easier than having Tessie demonstrate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RNbFjvZycs

She has been quiet all afternoon! That's very unusual...She hasn't even grumbled about the task at hand!

I think that Tessie may have found her calling. She is actually singing while she works. She has progressed to more modern stuff. She is now doing Aerosmith.

Hey! That's a lot better than listening to show tunes all afternoon! You should hear her Steven Tyler imitation...

Poke the last photo and you will see the pink and blue braid, coming out of the bottom of the disk. She is working pretty fast for a beginner.

I am actually making some progress on cleaning, since she is amusing herself.

See you tomorrow.