Webbcrafts

When I was young

My grandma, Rebecca Haynes, taught me so much, and yet she died when I was very young.

My memories are vague but powerful, and some are tangible in that I have beautifully worked dressing table mats, their stitches fragile, but the crochet pattern still intact and hiding in tissue paper against the light. When I hold them I am touching her and all that she taught me.

The Great Depression

Rebecca lived through the great depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, and then the war years when it wasn’t easy to be a woman, and through it all she wielded her crochet hook.

It didn’t mean anything to her that:

• Modern tampons have been around since the 1930s.

she had to find another way.

Nothing special used during Menstruation

It is generally believed that working class women from 1700 – 1900 didn’t bother with any menstrual protection, merely bleeding into their clothes, in which case my grandmother had learned to be different. Her lifestyle would, however, have been called ‘working class’ as she was married to a milkman.

• The average woman uses 11,000-17,000 tampons in a lifetime. (Think of the monetary value!)
  

Grandma didn’t know what a tampon was, and had she known she would have been very suspicious of their use. She crocheted her way through menstruation, and when she didn’t need protection for herself she taught others. Sadly my own mother never learned to crochet.

Available materials

Belts were made from a soft silky material (rayon, silk?), although she may have used linen in earlier years, from which to attach a pad with loops. The pads were filled with whatever material was available, it was believed that she used crushed sphagnum moss, but not sawdust. Perhaps it wasn’t available to her, I will never know.

What a waste of time!

It is now considered a waste of time to make menstrual protection as there are so many different kinds available, they all however contain the many chemicals that would be better not to introduce into such a delicate part of the body. (Some Facts)

A Disposable Life

A whole industry has been built around producing tampons and pads which can be thrown away, but what if, like in my Grandma’s day these products became scarce or unaffordable?

The mother of invention

I too have no need of menstrual protection since many years past, however I was asked to devise a way to apply medication to this very area, without contributing to chemical overload. I thought of tampons and researched some that were made with unbleached cotton which cost £5.00 each. Probably a reasonable cost for something imported, but making them for yourself would be so much more cost effective.

A simple pattern

Other crafters have worked on this problem and produced functional tampons and pads, but there is always room for improvement, (and cost) and in this case simplification. Grandma would be proud!

These are basically a chain with single crochet rows which can be rolled to form the filling. The tail is secured within a tiny eye which holds the bulk of the tampon beneath a small hood.

They are made using an unbleached cotton yarn which proved easier to insert than a softer bamboo yarn.

After use they can be opened out, rinsed in cold water and soaked in a solution of water and white vinegar or sodium bicarb. or tea tree oil, or even colloidal silver. Any bacteria removing agent that doesn’t contain chlorine bleach.

One thing leads to another

The same arguments apply to incontinence pads, and the need for an older person to be secure in the face of a very nasty cough. This is my pattern for those occasions :

The pad itself is unbleached cotton, but for the inserts I used soft bamboo yarn. Very absorbent and gentle on delicate parts. The pad can have as many inserts as needed  i.e. one on top of another. I tested this on myself and it is very comfortable.

I secured the triangle wings with a button, but you could use a pop stud, which means that it doesn’t move around in snug pants.

If you don’t crochet

If you don’t crochet but want to try something different that is made just for you, then I can customise your menstrual protection if you get in touch with your needs. (my email address)

Difficult times

Even in difficult times women are able to retain pride in their unique bodily functions by becoming self sufficient. It is true that we, as half of the human race, have been taught to believe that our biological functions should never be openly discussed, and mass production is better left to men.

We women know better!

Working Worms

Today I sorted my worms from the compost that they have made for me.

I provided old cardboard in the form of tubes from various sources of paper, and a huge quantity of used tea bags, both conventional black and herbal.

No Worries

Throughout the winter I checked on them occasionally, gave them extra tea bags or a blanket when it really got cold, and they worked. Thanking me by producing the most nutritious compost ever available, and staying with me.

Worm Bolt

It is not possible to keep a worm if it doesn’t want to stay, and when there are thousands that don’t want to stay it is indeed a spectacle.

They didn’t Like Scrap Wool

When I first started keeping worms my intention was to have them compost the waste wool that cannot be spun. Duly I gave them the wool as part of their bedding, and they left in huge numbers. I only spotted the flight by accident, and managed to keep a small amount by quickly finding another container and changing their habitat to cardboard. They then chose to stay, and have been with me ever since, which has been eight years now.

Grateful for Worms

I was destined to keep worms from an early age.  On reaching the age of  eight my parents and I holidayed in the country, and I collected an enormous number of worms and put them in a jar, but I didn’t have a lid. On being called to eat I wondered how to stop the worms from crawling away. The solution I felt was to turn the jar upside down then they couldn’t leave me.

On returning to the spot some hours later there wasn’t a worm left, and I was so embarrassed that I didn’t tell my parents what I had done, feeling that I should have known that they would burrow.

Mutual Admiration

I now know that if you give them what they need, the reward will be well worth the wait.

Free Fertilizer

Who knows if we will be able to rely on manufactured fertilizer always being available? And why not be organically self-sufficient anyway, it saves a great deal of money and the resulting vegetables are sweeter for that.

Creativity is Essential for Problem Solving

How many times have you read about powerful and creative people sleeping with a notebook,  ready to write down something dreamed, or on waking with an idea that wouldn’t have occurred to them in their usual routine?

The Writers that Did

Marcel Proust, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle and Philip Larkin all admit to keeping a notebook, because the best ideas arrive without warning, usually when the left brain is engaged elsewhere.

Why Worry?

It is the same with solving life’s problems. If you worry at a problem all you will get is worry lines and anxiety diseases, worry being a sure way of creating high blood pressure.

Forget your problem by deliberately activating your right brain.

How To…

Find some crayons and doodle, make models with plasticine, learn how to knit or crochet, or even use a children’s bobbin to make yards of French Knitting.

It is this type of activity which will enable you to make the big decisions, write your first article or buy the right stocks and shares to make you rich.

Use It Don’t Lose It

You were given this gift because you are human, use it to uplift humanity.