Meet The Snails

Photo of the blogger--which would be me.

We seldom get anywhere on time. Most of us use a walker or a cane. Everyone has gray hair. We are pretty much slower than snails but we get where we're going. It just takes us more time than those of the younger generation, like those still in their 60's.

We laugh alot. We never put pressure on one another to get a project finished. We help one another lay out quilts or learn a new craft. We meet once a week right after supper or thereabout. Mostly thereabout. We have hundreds of years experience between us. Our youngest member is 72; our oldest is 94. Oddly enough, it is the 94 year-old who gets around the best and can walk without an aid. If she wasn't so likable, we would probably all despise her.

None of us read this book and
boy, are we kicking ourselves now!

Some of us crochet. Others knit. A few of us quilt. One of us makes beautiful bead jewelry. Some of us do assorted crafting--one week knitting, another quilting, one crochets beautiful things which she showers on her friends. We're all happy to be her friend.

We came together because of prayer. I know that sounds strange. Let me tell you the story.

I've been widowed from the best friend I ever had and these past 2 1/2 years have been the saddest, hardest, most miserable journey I've ever had to face. One day I asked the Lord if I'd ever be happy again. If I'd ever have joy return to me. I told the Lord I wished to smile and laugh and act silly again.  A few days later, during my prayer time, I felt something actually change within me. I knew God had answered my prayer. I just didn't realize to what extent.

I'll get into that more in later posts.

The lady across the street from me, Patty, has more friends than I can count. Even if I use all my fingers and my toes. She walked across the street one day to see how I was doing. I relayed my experience with the Lord and then asked if she knew anyone who might like to get together at my home one evening a week so we could form a quilt group.

About a month passed. I never asked her again but continued to pray about it. Then came the day when she informed me that she had three ladies who wanted to get together, but not all were quilters. However we all crafted in one way or another. I was thrilled. I didn't care what media they liked best. I just wanted people around me again. I wanted to have some fun.

We might not be the most fashionable ladies in town,
but we are so old we don't care.

The next week four ladies arrived at my door. The next week, another joined us. Then a couple more. Some come regularly; others periodically. Most are widows; a few still have their husbands--the lucky ducks. There seemed to be no age difference among us. Since we're all old, we think alike and act alike and understand when one of us mentions the pain in her hip or back or anywhere else seniors become tend to fall apart, little by little. We all nod our heads and keep on crafting. For the most part, I'd say we are also a group of nodders.

Friends together, and always ready to welcome new ones
into our snail trail group, no matter what their age.

We all wear glasses. I bet you already figured that out. Our hands still work pretty good. So do our brains. We love to teach one another new tricks. The beader wanted to learn to knit so I gave her lessons for a couple of weeks. I've taught a lot of people to knit, but nobody picked it up faster than Laverne, our retired accountant. To my amazement, she has become a knitting maniac. She knits faster than anyone I know, even me, and it is incredible how she took to it so fast. She claims it was because I was a good teacher; but I know it's because she had the talent for it all along and all I did was help unwrap it.

On these blog posts, we'll show you our crafting, tell you how to do it in case you want to know, and link you to craft material sites that we've come to trust. Because we aren't an especially mobile group of snails, some of us buy everything online. A few grab up a cane or walker and head out to the actual stores and fight the other shoppers for that last ball of fishnet yarn or sparkly beads or the last fat quarter on the discount table.

Each week we'll feature one of our crafters and explain everything we know about how you can  make the same thing. We'll use text and pictures. We hope you'll you'll join our group so that we can share back and forth, thus increasing everyone's knowledge. Our comment section is there for you to ask questions or share knowledge. We'd love to hear from you. You don't even have to have gray hair.

Next week: Ruffle yarn scarves

All the rage right now; pricey to buy
but very inexpensive to knit yourself.