Who Said 2 Was Too Young?!

I finished my first embroidery in our new house! My first in a long while. I will give you the deets after I get it all in place and some photos are taken. Here is Minna admiring it and the pink hoop, of course.

It struck me that Minna needed to try embroidery right that minute! For some reason I thought I had to wait until she was 3 or 4 even. Where did I get that from? My own brain probably. Anyway, I have looked forward to the day when I could take the advice on embroidery with young children from this cool book and the day had finally arrived! (The boys have done some embroidery of course but they were already able to use sharper needles and didn't need to do the real beginner stuff.)

First we picked our colors. It may surprise you but Minna stuck with pinks and purples. She rearranged my floss box and I am still getting it back in order. Deep breath, moving right along now...

I hooped up some burlap and we threaded a very blunt tapestry needle with six stranded floss. I doubled the thread over and knotted both ends together. My 6 year old still likes it better that way too. Saves frequent re-threading on my end for now. Which is nice, but somehow I always have the patience for re-threading a needle. Of all things to have endless patience for.

Then she began. Up from the bottom to hide the knot and she was off! She totally got it! I think the hardest part is holding and manipulating the hoop while working. That is hard for us older folks too. Sometimes I wish I had another set of hands so I lent Minna mine now and again. By the end (nearly an hour!) she was holding it herself. She sat wiggling her toes and humming along. Unbelievably cute and so grown up! Look how proud she is!

Not more proud than I! I framed and dated her finished piece to save for always. Soon we will try tracing a simple line drawing and talk about long and short stitches maybe. Or, perhaps I won't say a thing and see where the thread takes her.

Somewhere beautiful I am sure.

Happy Monday!