basket case

I got given a basket full of goodies in Slovenia. The goodies were good but I do love baskets, so that is my favourite thing. It's made out of maize leaves.
Many years ago I went on a training course at Ruskin Mill and we were given a choice of three workshops - basket making, pottery and felt-making. We were told to write them in the order that we wanted to do them....well, that was easy, I love pottery, have always wanted to learn how to make baskets (so make that first choice) and thought felt-making sounded hideously boring and pointless. Little did I suspect that we would all get put into the group we least wanted to be in....so we had loads of impatient people crying over wonky baskets, people who hated dirt stamping out clay with bare feet and people like me, who like to do something a bit meatier, making little fluffy things out of wool. It was the most frustrating two days of my life. And boy did I learn a lot - about myself and about other people. I went on to work in a felt-workshop with young people with severe handicaps and learnt to love the medium - there is so much potential in it and so much fun to be had and it's so therapeutic.
I'm just about to take up felt-making again and am impatiently waiting for my wool order to arrive. I still can't make baskets - but I do know a song called Basket Case....