Osborn Fiber Studio

I was a bit at a loss for what to post about for the 12th day of Christmas, when Jared suggested I post about his homemade gift. It’s not a towel – it’s not even made of yarn – but it’s pretty special all the same.

Jared and I certainly can read Inuktitut syllabics, but it takes a lot of practice to read smoothly. So for the sake of efficiency, we usually read from Roman orthography. Practically, it still takes a long time to transcribe syllabics into Roman, but over time we’ve worked up a collection of most of the church services.

The collects, however, are another matter. They are short prayers, one for each week of the year, and special occasions. I noticed that Jared was transcribing them by hand every week. They were just on note paper strewn about his office, sure to be lost before they became useful.

So, one Sunday, I scooped them up after the service just before we walked out the door. I typed them all up into my computer, then came up with a pretext to return them to the church later that day, strewing them across the desk. I felt positively Jesuitical, to imitate Miss Climpson.

It took several hours out of the precious few I had all to myself, but I managed to get the remainder transcribed from the Inuktitut prayer book. It’s just the sort of tedious work I enjoy in small doses. Mercifully, it was easy enough to find the English version online and copy-paste.

It printed, sure enough, on 12 double-sided sheets. I bound it with a bit of yarn and an embroidery needle, then glued it into a rectangle sliced out of a hanging file folder. Included was an extra cover sheet to cut out and glue outside, et voila.

Husband was very surprised and very pleased. I’m so proud of all the ways he’s growing and learning and leading, and I’m beyond thankful to be serving with him.

Well, that concludes this series of towels and other handmade gifts this Christmas. Thanks for reading along. It’s been a very merry season for us, and I hope it has been for you too. God bless you, and happy Epiphany!