It is sad theey don't teach manual skills such as knitting, crochet and sewing in public schools anymore.

I didn’t learn to knit or crochet from my mother, but in public school in Belgium from grade 1 to 6 we had what they called “manual skills” and we learned to knit, crochet, embroider and sew by hand. In High School in Canada, they had Home Economics to teach us how to cook, plan meals and sew on electric machines.

I have spent many hours knitting, crocheting and sewing, and taught myself many other crafts like silver jewellery making, beading, pottery, leather work, stained glass….

Name it I’ll try it. I reckon that the money I spend on the materials probably equals the money I don’t spend going out to dinner, to the show or out to the bars. (Well, there was a time where I slipped on that one… not too much “hand-made” production during that time.)

I have used those skills to make gifts, to make some pocket money when my ex-husband was in medical school, and I also have made wedding dresses for my daughter and niece, clothes for friends, recovered furniture for my sister-in-law, covered chairs for my mother, made curtains so many times I cannot remember. One year I knitted 24 hats for Christmas.

Another year I made 12 wind breakers with knitted cuffs and collars, or lumberjack shirts for the kids. I usually use a pattern but many a time I just see something and design it and let my imagination go, put the personal touch; I also have designed many items from scratch like the macramé hanging made with kitchen cord and blue mussel shells picked in the Iles de la Madeleine.  My sister (when she was alive) and I started making our Christmas present around September or  October…we felt gifts bought were less personal; we much preferred putting all our love in making something special for someone special. Fall was such a special time for us designing and making presents for our loved ones!

All that love giving just from some Manual Skills classes in primary school! Amazing how much pleasure that one or maybe two hours  a week of primary school teaching has brought into my life…somehow I don’t get the same kick and lovely feeling when I apply what they taught me in geography, arithmetic and oh yuk, super yuk French grammar!

 They have found that learning two or three languages early in childhood actually has a positive correlation with the brain development and intelligence of a child; I wonder if teaching Hand Skills early in childhood wouldn’t have similar neuron stimulation as far as dexterity, eye hand co-ordination even logic. It certainly helped in arithmetic counting and recounting the stitches to make sure we didn’t lose one or add one with our clumsy fingers! It certainly taught us patience and perseverance!

It also makes for very fond memories of my sister, our giggling spells while sharing a small tablecloth we were embroidering… laughing fits so bad that we peed our pants and the teacher, Madame Charlois, in an effort to calm the two of us would sternly tell us to stop, which sent us in an even bigger laughing spell. Actually some times Miss Charlois had a hard time to hide her smile, our giggles were catching.

 I also remember having to knit a wash cloth in cotton; I had chosen white cotton, but my hands sweated so much that it was four shades of grey by the time I had the required dimensions. The problem was that I had pulled so much on it to have the right length that when my mother washed it, it lost half of its length! I think I was 6 or 7 years old at the time. My mother quickly knitted the missing rows so that I could hand it in in time!

My daughter planned her wedding so that all the people really dear to her participated in the event. We all shared our talents to make her wedding the best I ever attended. My nephew Olivier provided the music; my niece Natasha decorated the reception hall and the tables with flower arrangements out of this world; her cousin’s wife Debbie made the wedding cake; her mother-in-law made the wedding arch and decorated the signing table…. I made the wedding dress and Kaya’s dress and their jewellery: soft water pearl and garnet necklace and earrings.

It was with pride that I watched my daughter dance happily in her wedding dress holding the hand of her little ring bearer Kaya in a matching dress: all hand made by the mother of the bride!

Please, oh please bring back these wonderful courses in the curriculum…they will give hours of constructive pleasure to so many women, and erase the word boredom from the dictionary!

Cheers, Mama Cool