22. Friendship bracelets

After knotting a spare strip of cloth around their knee as an anchor, Vervain attached a safety pin with ten long strands of five different colors of yarn tied to it. Jaden had been happy enough to part with the scraps of yarn Vervain asked for, off cuts from different projects that they'd said were too short to be useful. Too short to be useful for Jaden, maybe, but Vervain had an idea that they would be perfect for. They sat back into the comfortable pillow pile to get started.

Picking up two different colors, Vervain twisted, knotted and tightened. Picking up the next set of colors, they did the same, twist, knot, tighten. After a row of knots, they started over again, from the first set. The steps would be repeated hundreds of times, more than they would keep track of, but they didn't need to hold any of the numbers in their head, the pattern that slowly appeared as they worked knots down the line was a simple one. While they worked they hummed softly.

Once they had practiced the pattern enough times that they could do it with their eyes closed, their mind drifted from the bracelet and to the future recipient. Jaden had brought so many new and interesting things when they had come into their life. Vervain wanted to celebrate the day they met, thank Jaden for their friendship, and give them a gift.

Vervain hadn't been sure what to do for Jaden at first, any of the things that Vervain was particularly good at were things that they already did for the other every day, cooking and working with Jaden in the gardens and orchards. So those things weren't going to be any sort of a good gift. It was almost by accident that Vervain had stumbled on the bracelet idea, and the fact that they were using scraps of the yarn that Jaden themself had made in the first place wasn't lost on them. All the same, they were putting some use to a thing that had piled up without a use so far, so Vervain really thought Jaden would appreciate it.

After finishing one bracelet, Vervain still had lots of yarn scraps and so decided to make more, they could always take them to market. They used different colors, made different patterns, used different numbers of yarn strands, that, coupled with the fact that Jaden's yarns were also hand made, made every bracelet unique. Vervain set aside the one that they thought Jaden would like the best, the rest of the bracelets that they made were tied into a bundle and wrapped in brown paper, ready to go to market. Other people would be giving their friends and families gifts this season, surely someone would want one. If they became popular, Vervain could put together kits so that others could learn to make their own, that would be a good long term use of yarn scraps, since Jaden was always making new skeins. If they kept thinking about it, Vervain was sure they could come up with a use for the fluff scraps, stuff that didn't make enough length for even bracelets.

(WC: 530)