Ascendance of a Bookworm

As soon as we finished dinner, Father, who had the morning shift, went to sleep. To avoid disturbing his rest, we could quietly occupy ourselves with handiwork in the kitchen until it was time for us to sleep.

When Father went to the bedroom and started preparing for bed, I brought up the topic of winter handiwork to Tulli and Mother.

“Today, the hair ornament I made for Frieda got great reviews, and someone wants one too. Benno asked if we could start the winter handiwork early. They want the same kind of hair ornament as Tulli’s.”

“...It’s not impossible, but...”

Mother and Tulli exchanged glances and frowned skeptically. They clearly thought starting the winter handiwork early would be too much trouble.

As expected, I reached into my tote bag and, as proof, jingled two medium copper coins onto the table.

“I brought a small advance payment. Once one is done, I’ll pay the rest properly.”

In the next moment, Mother and Tulli stood up with a clatter and moved the table closer to the hearth for more light.

“Huh? What?”

I was left sitting there foolishly, dumbfounded.

Meanwhile, Tulli fetched three thin crochet hooks from the sewing box for the three of us, and Mother brought a basket full of thread from the storage.

Their coordinated movements overwhelmed me. I got off the chair, and as I dragged it closer to the table with a rattling sound, Mother called out:

“Myne, where’s the sample you’re referencing?”

“Huh? I gave it back to Tulli.”

Reacting to my words, Tulli quickly pulled the hair ornament out of her wooden box.

I heard Father’s voice from the bedroom ask, “What’s going on?” but Mother’s voice came from the kitchen:

“Nothing. Good night, Gunther.”

By the time I moved my chair to the table and sat down properly, the handiwork preparations were completely ready.

“Myne, what colors should I use?”

Mother rummaged through the basket of thread and asked, but I didn’t have a specific color request. The instruction was only to match the design of Tulli’s hair ornament.

“They don’t know the customer’s hair color or favorite colors, so they want many pieces in different colors. Choose three colors to match Tulli’s ornament, and make the same number of flowers.”

“Got it. How about white, yellow, and red?”

“That’s cute and nice.”

As soon as I answered, Mother started crocheting furiously. Since she had made Tulli’s ornament before, she knew how to do it and was fast—really fast. It takes me about 15 minutes to make one small flower, but she finished one in about five.

We would make four small flowers in each color and arrange them into a bouquet.

“It’s nice to have options, right? I think I’ll do white, yellow, and blue—same as my hair ornament. What about you, Myne?”

Tulli smiled warmly as she sorted through the many colors, clearly fond of the ornament I made, which made me happy.

“I think I’ll do pink, red, and green. The green flowers look like leaves, so I think it’s cute.”

“Yeah, cute... Hey, Myne, how do you make them?”

Tulli, thinking Mother was too focused on crocheting to ask, pulled her chair shakily next to me. Since the sample ornament was made for Tulli, she hadn’t made one herself.

“It’s not that hard. Like this, and then like this...”

I showed Tulli how to crochet the small flowers. It was much easier than Frieda’s roses, so she caught on quickly.

“Got it. Thanks!”

After pulling her chair back, Tulli quietly started crocheting.

After a while, she finished three small flowers, and when I looked up, there was a huge difference in progress.

Mother had almost enough flowers to finish one ornament, and six small flowers lay in front of Tulli.

Wow, as expected of our sewing beauties.

Mother and Tulli’s hands moved far faster than mine. They made progress almost instantly.

Being mom-art-trained, I couldn’t compete in speed or beauty. At least, I decided to make sure that when my ornament was compared to theirs, it wouldn’t look poor at first glance, and carefully moved my crochet hook.