And so the saga continues…
I am currently back to working with the napkin rings. I have got to be the most stubborn person I know. I have no idea why I won’t give up on these things, but I refuse. Actually, that’s a lie, I know why I won’t give up. I was raised not to waste things or money, and the fact that I bought a craft means I need to finish it. Convoluted, I know, but there it is. I can’t quit or I’d be wasting money. What an odd thing to learn about yourself from a napkin ring.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand, napkin rings. I just want to start by saying, when you are working with twine, do not think you will escape the little fuzzy ends. Now, in my defense, I missed the reminder to tape the ends of the twine, but I honestly don’t think that the twine and the tape would have made it through the hole in the bead.
So twelve beads later, I have the beginning of my napkin ring. I’d like to add a note here that you can see the pile of fuzzy ends that I had to cut off because I didn’t use the tape. However, after I started to twist the twine instead of fighting to get it through the hole, it went much more smoothly, because I was pushing the twine in the same direction in which it naturally wanted to go. Pardon my moment of recognizing my life parallels again, but I have been making a lot of changes in my life and have only recently learned that when I push against the tide, I get nowhere quickly. Things go much more smoothly if I try to push in the general direction in which things are already moving while making slight course corrections. You’d think by forty-nine I’d have learned that but, no, it’s a new lesson. Here’s a practical lesson to go along with the personal one, don’t forget twine isn’t thread and try to wet the end of the twine in your mouth to get the thing to squish back together because you will end up with a tongue covered in twine and you will be spitting and wiping your tongue for a while.
That’s when they threw me for a loop, an unintentional pun but I like it so I’m leaving it in. I read the directions that said I was supposed to pass the twine back through the first bead to make a loop. I almost threw out the directions at that point. I mean, look at the size of the twine and the hole!?! How in the world did they think I was going to do that? They had to be drunk. However, as I previously mentioned, I’m no quitter, so I twisted and shoved and took a break and tried again. Fast forward five minutes and presto!
I was feeling very pleased with myself and decided to bask in the glow and read the next step. After all, I was on a roll. Until I wasn’t. I read I was supposed to have a piece of cardboard to wrap the twine around twenty-five times so I could make the tassel and all I could think was ‘Oh no you don’t’ and immediately put everything away for the day.
Sometimes you have to know when to retreat and live to fight another day.
Duct Tape and Dreams 