Oh yes, Taff, by all means do explain about your cardigan. You told me it had a special story and I love stories. Haven't I told you this before? Well I suppose I forgot. This is such a fine evening, perfect to sit a spell. Come and sit by my side, while I work on these frippy little things, and you tell me all about it.
"When I was one year littler, my Aunt Lucia threatened me every day with catching a cold. I think her main concern were the lack of shoes, but I guess I was wrong. On my last birthday I opened this cardigan she had knit for me. You see, back then it was too large, the sleeves were very long on my arms, and the buttons were all wrong. I was grateful, nonetheless, that Aunt Lucia had spent so much time making me this in secret, for I never saw her with this wool colour in her hands, I never saw her making it, but when I held it in my arms I knew she had made it, over many a night, by the windows, in the kitchen, always watching, keeping an eye for one of my stealth appearances so I wouldn't catch her. And I never did.
She was so saddened by the absence of proper fit, but chalked it to the lack of previous fittings, and having only ever knit one thing for Uncle Mateo, I guess the needles had a mind of their own. I loved it. It was the perfect size to carry kittens all tucked in inside the sleeves, to pretend to a be a googly-eyed monster with every long reaching arms, kind of like tentacles. She winced every time she saw me like that, but I always smiled back. We had to do something about them buttons though, they were red. And everybody knows red is a colour for girls. At least!. No self-respecting farm hand will wear red buttons, no sir. So I went upstairs with her and we looked in the old cookie tin where Aunt Lucia had all sorts of notions about, for mending and for sewing in her little to no spare hours. And I found these gems over here. Oh yes, I did. Aunt Lucia complained they weren't all the same, and all the different sizes, but to me no matter. I liked them anyways. She promptly sew them on, and me and my cardigan have been the best of pals ever since."
Well Taff, that is a very special story. Is that why you like your cardigan so much? Because you got to pick the funky buttons? I know of a doll or two that gets very excited when I sit them by my side and they get to rummage through my own old cookie tin and find that special set, those little gems that make them twinkle. Was it like that with your Aunt Lucia? I think it was. It is always a treat to be involved somehow in the story and the making of the things around us, isn't it. I believe so.
And that is one of the many reasons, my dolls become part of me and I become part of them. I am involved not only in their creation, but their stories come from within me. Special moments we share together, rummaging through old tins, finding a special gem that we both share. I give, and they take. Yet I am always the one that takes the more with her.
