Crochet- Thing With 1 Stick

As usual, I was sitting in my truck sewing before work. Tommy's wife parked beside me to drop him off. She waited for him to bring his check to her (I don't think she earns her own money and poor Tommy probably never keeps his earnings). She noticed my bright colored star, and sent Tommy to ask me if I was crocheting.

Sigh.

Crochet is the thing you do with one stick. Knitting needs two sticks. Just about everything else falls under sewing, which is the little bitty metal stick. Weaving usually needs a large contraption that can't be taken out of the house, and spinning is the thing Goddesses do in Their spare time.

Speaking of sticks, against my better judgement, I met Kurt after work, mainly because I was curious about his stick. I found out it's a good size. I explained why we can't do it again. But I am already missing his stick. And I'm not good. And he's persistent. I really shouldn't be fooling with his stick. Let's get back to the non-crocheted star:

I told Tommy it was needlepoint. Really, it's too hard to explain. Often I tell people I quilt. The first thing they ask is 'Do you knit them?' NO. I don't knit. I quilt. Nobody gets it. Once I spent an awful long time in a confusing conversation with a man who wanted to know if I embroidered queen sized quilts. I thought he was asking he to make something with embroidery and he was just asking if I ever made queen sized quilts. Sometimes when I would sell my quilts at the flea market, people couldn't understand why I was unable to the change the color of the fabric. I don't mean I was selling a blue quilt and they wanted red. I mean the blue fabric would have white flowers printed on it and they wanted me to change just the color of the flowers. A woman was all set to buy one of my baby quilts. Suddenly she asked if I could put her son's name on it. No problem, how big? I meant, how big should his name appear on the quilt. She kept telling me it was six letters long. I've had people with a glimmer of understanding about sewing ask me to make something, and I would spend a good deal of time sketching, estimating, and calculating only to have them say they'll get back to me. They never do. If you're going to tie me up for an hour, I think I should be paid. It wasn't a pleasant conversation between friends; it was a whole lot of work out the window. This is why I no longer do custom orders. I have to give a textile education before I can find out what I am expected to make. Often people want me to make a quilt like the one Grandma had. I have no clue what kind of quilt your Granny put on her bed and the more you try to describe it, the more I realize you don't remember.

From now on, if you see someone in the act of creation, just ask, what are you making?