Saturday, November 21, 2009

Teenage Boys


Graham had his good friends Aaron and Zac sleep over last night (the alpha and the omega, I now realize). Steve and I took the three of them out to dinner at the neighborhood Chinese food buffet, and then we went home. They saw the needle felting I had done the night before on the kitchen table and seemed really interested. After a few, "that would be really interesting's," and "that looks fun's," and "I'd like to try that some time's," they just came out and asked if they could give it a go. Luckily, I had purchased a set of five felting needles, so there was plenty to go around. I didn't have felting blocks for all of them, so they worked on folded bath towels.

All three of these 13-year-old's were eager students and sat and worked diligently at their projects. They picked the most daring colors I had, all the while saying things like, "This is super fun," "I am going to ask my mom to get me supplies for Christmas," and my favorite (a jaw-dropper): "This is more fun than video games." "Yeah," another one said, "video games are starting to get boring." One more time. A thirteen-year-old boy said, "Video games are starting to get boring." Victory!

Graham's ball is on the right -- he wanted to make his very random (so it has lots of different colors on it.) He had fun picking his favorite colors from the ones I had (brights and darks). Aaron's block stack is in the middle (it's all felted together as one piece). I think it looks very Asian-influenced, almost sushi-like. His felting is very tight and compact, and his use of color was really nice. Zac wanted to make his mom a bird like the one I made the day before. "I never get her anything for Christmas," he said. He was only part-way done last night when I went to bed, and this morning I saw he had stuck at it until he finished. I asked him if I could take it to work to take a picture, and he said, "You can, but it didn't turn out very well." I told him I thought it was wonderful. How tickled would you be if a 13-year-old boy in braces made you a needle felted bird for Christmas?

Aaron's birthday is coming up in January, and I think I know what we'll get him. You never know how someone will react to a new craft. And I had never even thought about showing these boys how to cross stitch. I've never thought they'd take to that, but now I'm not so sure. Life is full of surprises.

10 comments:

Melissa said...

Good morning, Theresa!

What a great story. The boys did a great job, and so did you on your post yesterday. I've always been intrigued by needle felting and now you've made it look so easy and fun!

It's nice when some of Life's surprises are so gratifying!

Margaret said...

That's so great! And for them to say it's more fun than video games -- now that's huge! :D I know, I'm the mom of a 15 year old boy. I hope they keep doing the needle felting.

Catherine said...

What a great story! And I have to say, that as a mother of three boys, I would be thrilled to get such a gift!

Wakana said...

how cute is that! my sons (13 and 9) cross stitches with me sometimes, they each have work-in-progress cross stitch kits made for kids (the kind that comes with a frame) in my craft closet. Although they only work maybe 5 minutes at a time, it's fun to watch them. I'd love to have them try needle felting!

Linen Stitcher said...

This is a victory indeed! As the mother of a 13-year-old boy who pretty much ignores my cross stitch, I think this is a wonderful story. It's great that they were willing to give it a try and had fun being creative.

Theresa said...

I do have to say that I did totally skewer my left pointer finger this weekend whilst needle felting a tiny watermelon. The watermelon turned out super-cute, but my finger turned purple/black/yellow/blue from my second knuckle to the tip of my finger (so basically, I had an off-color half finger!) It's looking much better today -- should have taken a picture. Crafting injury!!!

Unknown said...

Wow, now that's impressive! And what a great memory to carry with you...

HAPPY STITCHIN'
Terri

Tanya Willis Anderson said...

Hi!
Don't have your email so surely you'll get this - any idea when my pattern order will ship from the needle retail show?

Thanks,
Tanya Anderson

Jacqueline Korteland Boller said...

I love it!! Reminds me of when my oldest wanted to learn to knit, so got him that Lion Brand kit with the big yarn and needles and he had at it. Sure calmed him down.

Tanya Willis Anderson said...

It came today - thanks.

Tanya