I once had a job that was, to use polite phrasing, ‘just not a good fit’. I only stayed for two months, and lucky circumstances led me to find something new surprisingly easily, for which I was extremely grateful. With all that said, perhaps I was in the right place at the right time – there was an opportunity to use my knitting skills for good during those short two months.
I really liked the office manager there, my boss. She was a kind, thoughtful person. Her mum had dementia and was often quite agitated during their visits. My boss told me one day that her mum would pluck at her lap blanket, or at her sleeve, and it reminded me of something I’d read about twiddle muffs.
Let’s pause for a moment to say that I don’t enjoy the words twiddle muff at all, but that’s what these items are called and we shan’t dwell on it.
The concept is simple – if a person is feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or uncomfortable, they often want to footer with something (that’s a Scottish word that you could use to mean fidget, though you could also use it in the contexts of tampering with something, or messing about uselessly). There’s a whole market out there of fidget toys and jewellery to attest to this. The twiddle muff is the same deal but with the added bonus of being soft to touch and keeping your hands warm. Googling it brings back a lot of pictures, articles, patterns, and positive anecdotal evidence, should you like to disappear down a rabbit hole for a while.
Truth be told I don’t know how I decided how many stitches to cast on. I do know that I had scraps of these pretty yarns I thought would be perfect, and no end of notions knocking about. I made a wee green pom pom and a cute patch, too. It was a quick project with a lot of different fiddly bits, both inside and out, to soothe a troubled mind. As a finishing touch, I wove a piece of ribbon through for tying and untying.
The buttons I used were a mix of spare ones from clothes I no longer owned, odd ones that have gravitated to my stash with no known origin, and some of my dog/heart/square buttons that were bought simply because they’re cute. The great thing is the mix of sizes, shapes and textures: one is coconut shell, one fabric covered, one rounded and smooth, one chunky metal with embossing, and the dog and heart have points, corners and curves aplenty.
It’s also pretty to look at – the main yarn has little puffs of colour throughout that match more or less anything. The variegated purple is similarly easy to pick out accent colours from (it was left over from making Very Hungry Caterpillar antennae). I even like the gentle undulation caused by the different yarn weights.
All in all it was a sweet little project, and the recipient seemed to enjoy it – certainly she kept it in her lap throughout the next visit and that’s rave review enough for me.
The Crafty Yarnster 