Basket Project

   One of the things I started to do last year is the Young Women's Personal Progress, a program developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for female teenage members. I decided to do it as there are projects that encourage growth in many areas, not just spiritual. I felt that it would be good for me to do it and finish it on or before my 50th birthday this summer.
  There are several values that are explored. Each value has six experiences to be done and then a project. The project has to take at least ten hours of time.
   The value I'm working on right now is divine nature. Part of divine nature is the ability to create. I decided that my project was to make a basket using t-shirt yarn made from old knitted shirts and pants that could not be worn or that were unneeded. I would knit the yarn into ropes and sew the ropes into a basket.
  I collected t-shirts last year and knitted them into ropes. I spent hours cutting and knitting. many long car rides were spent with knitting needles in hand turning that t-shirt yarn into the ropes needed for my project.
   A few weeks ago, I looked at the number of ropes that I had. I decided that I had enough. It was time to start sewing. I bought some heavy duty thread and needles at a fabric store. The next step was to put it together without sewing. I decided to put the darker coloured ropes on the bottom. That fabric was thicker and would work nicely as a base. Then I tried to pile the ropes on each other for the sides. I realised that not all of the ropes were the same thickness. I'd have to use the thicker ropes on the bottom and the thinner ones on top. I thought I'd be able to stack them so I'd have an idea of the finished product, but it just didn't work.
  Undaunted, I decided to start with the bottom. It was much harder to push the needle through the cloth. Who knew that knitted fabric could be so hard. I switched to a needle with a sharper point, but my thumb and index finger still ached from having to force the needle through. It also wasn't turning out as neat as I would have hoped. The stitches were uneven some longer than the others and not perfectly spaced. It was not going to look pretty.
   It didn't matter to me. I decided that the bottom would not be seen and maybe I could turn the sides inside out so that the stitches wouldn't show. The other option would be to let the stitches show through anyway. It was not something I planned to display. I wanted to make a basket for I would have an appropriate place to store more yarn or finished knitted and crocheted projects. If it was functional I would be satisfied with my work.
  Even if it wasn't perfect it would still meet the requirement of the project. It would help me to practice a divine quality I possess, creativity. In addition it would also help to practice a human quality, the ability to be satisfied when I have done by best, even when that best isn't perfect.