This is a thread about real threads..

[mrs_overall]

So which of you knit, crochet and sew?

[LoftyLottie]

I hated hockey and hid in the cloakrooms.
I never did finish my Apron. I hated sewing at school.
Funnily enough when I left school and started to love fashion and clothes I made all my own. Different outfit every weekend - and yet I couldn't finish that bloody apron.

My grandmother tried to teach me to crochet, but in the end I taught myself from books and made all sorts of wondrous things.

I used to knit a lot to, but don't seem to have the inclination any more.

[DEN53]

Hiya Lottie - I also hated hockey and netball. All the girls in the netball and hockey teams were bit fat tarts who knocked me sideways everytime I tried to get the ball.
I also hated PE classes - always hated climbing the rope or wall bars - used to have a panic attack at the top and someone would have to get me down.

[LoftyLottie]

Likewise Den, I actually hated most school sports, except that I had long legs and could run and was good at 'dance'. I still have long legs but I can only hobble now and dancing unfortunately is limited to a hobbly dance about the house when no-one else is about.

Those hockey girls frightened me to death with their big sticks and aggresssive attitude. Sorry Shaney, I am sure you were the exception. I got hit on the shin with a hockey ball in my first year at secondary school and had a blood clot as a result of it.

[woofgang]

I hated all school sports but in the sixth form they started this alternative sports thing and I did archery and fencing. I enjoyed both and was actually good at archery.

[LoftyLottie]

I would have enjoyed alternative sports Woofy. I love being outside and map reading. Would have enjoyed orienteering. Also I am quite a good shot, so I would have loved archery.

School sports to me meant getting muddy and cold and girls can be just so aggressive. I'm afraid I'm just not made that way.

[BAKERS DOZEN]

Remember buying my young daughter a really nice brown skirt and decided that I would knit a brown jumper with a yellow pattern near the hem (it was the early 70's). She pulled her face at the choice of colours and went into a big sulk. When we got to the shop to buy the wool I explained to the assistant what the problem was and after some thought she said to my daughter "You don't want brown and yellow do you - that's so boring. Why not have Chocolate and Lemon". Result one very happy child and one very satisfied mum who learned a bit of child psychology which stood me in good stead for a few years.

[boxtops]

I remember when I was little, the woman next door got a knitting machine. Her daughter was kitted out in every knitted garment you could imagine!

[Prudie]

I was put off all things domestic at school because of the teacher - fanny we called her. I think lots of schools had a teacher the girls would call fanny!

[woofgang]

Knitted swimsuits :-(. My cousins had them my mum used to say over her dead body.

[Eve]

My mum and nan taught me to knit and used to make toys more than anything, preferred quicker, smaller things. I volunteered at a local hospice when I was at college and was taught to crochet there. Rubbish nowadays with my arthritis though.

I used to love my mum's sewing machine (could never master nan's treadle one). In first year textiles when everyone was making cushions and beanbags, I made a fully lined waistcoat haha :)

I remember deciding to make my mum a birthday present in secondary school and spending time at a friend's house using her mum's sewing machine to make her a shopping bag which she still has and uses to this day and I'm 32 now. Makes me smile when I see it.