On The Soft Side

Last week I got a Phone call from a member of the men's fellowship at church. He was soliciting donations for the silent auction that is to take place during the annual parish fish fry this weekend. Two years ago, I made a knitted teddy bear that raised $75 for Habitat for Humanity. He was hoping that I would make another one for this year's auction. In a moment of weakness, I agreed.

Tonight I was sitting at the kitchen table trying to finish the last of the bear. I like this particular pattern because it is all done in one piece. The only tricky part about it is that you have to stuff the body of the bear before you knit on the arms. Off to the craft closet I went to find the bin of poly-fil.

The eveining was rather the calm. The cat was asleep on the table and the dogs were playing quietly underneath. I was feeling pretty good about the progress I was making. I had no doubt that I would finish the knitting of the bear tonight, leaving only the application of the ears and facial features for tomorrow.

I was in the knitting zone. Suddenly I caught something out of the corner of my eye.

"Wow! I did not realize that Mom saves all of the stuffing that Adidas and I rip out of our toys. I always thought that we made her mad when we dissected things under the kitchen table. How sentimental of her."

"I wonder what else she has saved. Do you think that she saves all the underwear that we chew? The socks? Maybe she saved all those cell phones that Adidas chomped when he was a puppy."

"This is cool stuff, Mom. How many toys do you think this took?"

"How come she gets away with this? She is you favorite! If I had climbed into the bin you would have yelled at me. You would have taken my frisbee away. I would be on cookie and TV restriction too. How come the baby gets to do things that I can't?"

"Whine, Whine, Whine. If it is that big a deal, I will get out and we can go fight over a rawhide bone or something."

In case you are wondering, I did not finish the bear. Tomorrow, I promise!