Ah, gentle reader. The Handicrafts category here used to be so full of things I was trying, especially around 2010 and thereabouts when I watched a lot of crafting programs with my children, but it’s been tapering off since I’ve…. Well, I’ve had jobs and contracts filling the days and nights, and I’ve also ended up with a garage full of completed “projects” with nothing to do with them along with a garage full of components for intended projects (reified potential). I’ve started, slowly, winnowing (throwing out or donating) stuff from the garage (see lamentations in 2024 and 2026–as I said, it’s a slow process of self-negation in giving up on these things which I’ll never use.
Well: I had this Milwaukee Admirals sweatshirt which I bought at an Admirals game 2026 which I wore the edges off. No, seriously; the cuffs and neck were pretty frayed, but I eventually benched it because a large hole opened under the arms. Not just a split seam, but torn fabric (I guess the seams were pretty solid). I put it on a shelf in the closet with other things that I thought my mother-in-law could fix, as she offered the service in the past, but I never felt comfortable taking her up on it.
Time passed, and the offer is no longer operative. So I cleared that shelf of pants with opened hems and missing buttons and some things with torn knees that my boys have not fit into for years and put them in a donation box. But the Admirals sweatshirt–I wanted to do something with it. After all, it’s the Admirals old logo. No, not the penultimate logo, the “pirate” admiral–that replaced this, a classicker logo.
So, inspired by something my mother-in-law did for my oldest, who outgrew a child’s gi. She cut the logo from the back of the jacket and framed it. He still has it in his room somewhere–he has inherited an instinct for cluttercore interior design from his father, so it might not be visible at first glance, but it’s somewhere in there if I recall.
So I put the sweatshirt on the back of one of my desk chairs for a couple of weeks, and yesterday became THE DAY to do the project. I went to Michaels and then Hobby Lobby to find a frame or shadowbox for the thing. Frames at Michaels were like $40 (buy one, get one free, but I only needed one). So I went around to Hobby Lobby and found a shadowbox for $10 (40% off). I used a cardboard (not self-healing) mat whose last use might have been when my beautiful wife thought to trade with Pixie lessons in HTML for lessons in sewing in Casinoport 20 years ago. Or maybe we used it when making felt Halloween costumes fifteen years ago. But: It does not get much use, and it gathers much dust. I have a rotary/wheel fabric cutter which I bought to cut the tarnish-free cloth to redo my sainted mother’s jewelry box (all essentials acquired three or four or five years ago, project: Unfinished. Unstarted.) which I broke out of its packaging. And fifteen minutes later:
Jeez, it takes me so long to get around to these things, and I have a lot of time on my hands these days. I really need to spend less time at the computer, although time away from the computer does not give me the lotto chance of getting a job.
I will probably mark this Handicrafts, but I am not sure this rises to DeRooneyfication. But I (briefly) got some satisfaction from it, although in writing this post, I think again it was just twee. It’s on my wall in my office now, though, and a good memento even if I cannot wear it.
Now, if you’ll pardon me, I’m off to find a Milwaukee Admirals Jordin Tootoo jersey.
