The hardest job I ever had...............................

My Mum (now age 95!) was chatting to her friend and I overheard her say “The hardest job I ever had was teaching our Jane to cast on”. Of course she was referring to teaching me to knit. She quickly followed this statement with a little bit of a boast; “Before you knew where she was, she was casting on for the whole class!” Phew, it must have clicked with me eventually!!

Now, anybody who knows me, knows that I just love knitting and any other kind of crafts I can get my hands on! But……………..I can still remember being age 5 in Miss Palmer’s reception class knitting dishcloths and proudly holding up my very first finished one, only to realise with dismay that it had a huge hole in the middle where I had dropped lots of stitches! Perhaps at that point I COULD cast on but hadn’t quite learnt that if I dropped a stitch I was required to pick it up again! I’m delighted to say that I have improved since then J

I bring my love of crafts into my work for CID by leading the Handcrafters’ Guild; we have over 140 members who knit, crochet, sew, make greetings cards and other items to send to Romania to help clothe the children we care for and also to sell some to raise funds for the charity. I also try to encourage other friends of the charity to make blankets, clothes and toys for the children. One of the girls (Ionela) at St Laurence’s, Cernavoda now makes herself some money embroidering exquisite table mats and runners and selling them; a craft she learnt from me during my visits to St Laurence’s.
My latest foray into the world of crafts is to set up the Children in Distress Yarn Shop http://childrenindistress.yarnshopping.com/ to not only bring our Guild members and other supporters some very affordable yarns but also to (hopefully) raise some much needed funds for the charity.

Ever since learning that ‘pride comes before a fall’ (the dishcloth episode!) I have tried to do my best at whatever I was doing at that precise moment. A J Leon, who I had the privilege of meeting some years back, says in his blog ‘The Pursuit of Everything’ - Produce your best work every single time. Or produce nothing. Anything in the middle is a waste of your time and our attention. Well, when I was 5 years old, there was nothing in the middle of my dishcloth and it WAS a waste of my time! However at that time I was producing the best work I could.

What was the hardest job you ever had?
Jane x

PS If you'd like to join our Handcrafters' Guild, drop me a line at janerussell@childrenindistress.org.uk