Firstly, a monkey’s fist knot. Although it is woven around a foam center, it is still fairly heavy. People say these are illegal to tie, but I do not think that is true of the knot itself. Perhaps it once was forbidden, in the days when gangsters crafted crude bludgeoning weapons using metal or stone centers. I can believe that. Even my tamed iteration can hurt when swung.
Secondly, a glass paperweight, faceted like an obnoxiously oversized diamond. The clock in the center does not function, if indeed it ever did. It catches the sunlight bouncing a dozen tiny rainbows. Despite its beauty, it is still a mere office tool, given up to a Goodwill and sold for ten dollars.
Finally, perhaps the most curious item of all: hand-spun, home-spun yarn, spun from the wealth of many years summer sheds of a grumpy labrador by my younger brother in the suburbs of Chicago on a wheel painstakingly crafted for him by our dad. It is only twenty-five percent fibers from the dog, the other seventy-five from our aunt’s sheep in rural Indiana. It speaks to the creativity and determination of youth embracing old traditions even in new environments.
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