Sunday 7 November 2010

"Feel it,"

I suggest to the woman standing in front of me. She is carrying a white cane and has been holding several items to within a few centimetres trying to see them. Now she has moved on to a brightly coloured rug kit on the stall I have been working at over the past three days. I put the alpaca yarn next to her hand. She smiles.
"Oh, lovely! What is it?"
"Alpaca - Fair Trade from Bolivia."
"And the colours?"
Her friend and I try to describe them. She nods.
"And it is a rug, a crochet kit."
"I can crochet," she says, "Mostly strips - treble."
It will sound like a foreign language to people who do not crochet but we understand her of course. I tell her these are squares made with trebles, that there is a flower in the centre. She nods again.
"Could I do it with just the squares? Would I be able to feel that do you think?"
"Why not?" I ask, "If you think you can then you probably can. May I show you?"
She understands that means I will need to hold her hand for a moment. I help her to explore a single crochet square. By the time we have finished she is grinning.
"I think I can do that!"
She buys yarn and goes off still smiling. She may not have seen the adjacent quilt display in all its splendour but she has seen something soft and beautiful and her pleasure is obvious.
That gave me pleasure too.

No comments: