Wang Jiao may have thought herself stupid because she had never done any needlework, but she was not stupid at all. Under Feng Qingxue’s guidance, she quickly learned how to use a sewing machine, how to cut and sew clothes, how to button, how to make soles of shoes, and other basic skills. She also learned how to design and cut shoe patterns.
Though her stitches were crooked, some loose and some tight, and her buttoning was not delicate, she eventually learned.
The thing she learned to do fastest and best was surprisingly knitting sweaters!
Feng Qingxue picked up a needle and knitted a few rounds. It was a new pattern not yet seen at the time, but very common in the future. She didn’t know the exact name of the pattern, once knitted, it would form little flowers on the sweater, unlike the plain knitting pattern of the present without any decorations.
Wang Jiao watched for a while and thought it was beautiful, so she wanted to learn. As a result, she quickly picked it up.
On a two-finger-wide piece of knitting, there were four bamboo knitting needles. Feng Qingxue was using three when pulling up the needle. The extra one was used for knitting, threading it through the three original ones and the extra one. Once she finished one needle, she would move on to the next.
At first, Wang Jiao’s knitting was loose and tight; the little flowers were big and small, not pretty at all. In the end, she took it apart and reknit it.
Within a few days, Wang Jiao had learned it. She knitted quickly and well, with proper tension, hardly worse than Feng Qingxue’s.
"I’ll take the wool back and knit by myself. If I can’t finish it, I’ll come and ask you for help." Wang Jiao was now filled with a sense of accomplishment and wanted to wear the sweater she knit herself for her wedding.
At that time, she could proudly tell those who said her hands were not good for work that she knitted the sweater herself!
Not everyone who wants to knit a sweater knows how to. If you can’t buy the wool, how can you have the opportunity to knit a sweater? If you have never knitted a sweater, of course, you won’t know how to knit!
"Sure!" Feng Qingxue didn’t refuse. She figured the busy farming season was about to start.
Even if she was pregnant, she couldn’t avoid working. She would still have to take care of the family’s meals, where could she find the time to continue knitting? If Wang Jiao wanted to take the wool back, she could certainly spare the time.
"Alright, I’m leaving. Zhang Yuejin said he would come to give the festival gift to my parents today."
Feng Qingxue was startled, wasn’t it almost the fifteenth of the eighth lunar month?
Zhang Yuejin and Wang Jiao were unmarried, but their marriage was set, the wedding date was in the late autumn and early winter. According to the current customs, he must deliver a festival gift to his future father-in-law. Otherwise, it would be hard to say whether the marriage could proceed.
Older people valued these traditions. They didn’t care about the quantity of the gift, considering the scarcity of resources. But they insisted on the ritual.
Feng Qingxue wondered if she should make a trip to her maternal home. While no one from her maternal home was alive, her uncle and aunt had taken care of her wedding arrangements, and they took care of the vegetables in her home as well. out of sentiment and reason, she should visit them. Even if she only gave two pounds of flour and one pound of fruit, her Uncle Feng, Aunt Feng, and the folks of Caohu’s team would not accuse her of being ungrateful.
When lunch was about, she mentioned it to her father-in-law. He nodded, "You should go! They are your close relatives. Even if they had not arranged for your wedding, according to the old customs, a married niece should visit her uncles and aunts on her first return to her maternal home. Isn’t this your first time coming back to offer festival gifts? You should go. I’m not sure what our family has now, you should select a couple of good items, so people won’t laugh at us."