We gather, we have a ball

Last Saturday, we had planned to have our first meeting of the Board of Directors of A Little Something, followed by a drop-in session for women who needed help with their crafts or needed to pick up supplies.

The weather forecast wasn't very encouraging. Since most of the women come by bus, we figured we would have our meeting and go home--we didn't really expect much of a turnout.

Sometimes, nothing is what you expect. We had over a dozen women in attendance, including four newcomers from Bhutan and one from Burma. Not only did they come on a freezing Saturday morning, they showed up about 40 minutes early. So much for that business meeting. Not a big deal--spending time with the women is much more fun than writing bylaws and setting goals.

Sharifo brought her son, a chubby, healthy, active 18-month old. Mama Moumina is in Denver until the weather turns cold in earnest (and then she spends the winter in Phoenix). She brought two of the baskets she weaves from bread wrappers and plastic grocery bags. Hind once again dazzled us with her innate design sense and excellent technical skills. Our two newest weavers/knitters, Pampha and Durga, went home with plenty of rich, wool yarn with which they will create sumptuous-yet-quirky hats and scarves.

Katrina was able to spend time with the members in attendance explaining the co-op contract and how members are paid. Anna worked through quality control with the Somali women (and a successful lesson with the "Yes/No" board), while Jaime worked on materials distribution. I was busy giving a starter lesson on bracelet making, bead selection, crimping, and using tools with the new members.


I regret that I was too busy to take a picture of Susan diligently assembling tool sets and findings for the teen girls. Because I take medication that sometimes makes my memory a bit foggy, I make lists for everything. I created a visual picture list to use when making starter sets so I wouldn't forget to include anything. It was very validating, then, to see Susan deep in concentration checking her sets against my rumpled visual list.

It's looking more and more like we're going to have a large community of weavers within A Little Something. Our weavers' styles are as different as their ethnicities--Karen, Karenni, Nepalese, and Burmese. This is something we've tried to foster from the beginning of the project, and it's finally about to happen. Next steps: sewing and soap making. More on that later.

Although we had expected a slow Saturday morning and only two hours of "hands-on" time, we barely had time to sit. I believe it was 3:00 when we finally got in our cars to head home. There are not enough hours in the day. Not even close.