Jimmy James’ Scarf

Aug 13, 2011 | Blog, Short Stories

After having so much fun with the Ink Paper Pen writing challenge, I went searching for another one. I remembered that Leaf Journals has a story starter challenge each week. This week’s is My Greatest Achievement… Hand Made.

Jimmy James loved creating things. All his life he made bits and pieces out of whatever he could find. At different times of his life, he would make things out of different materials. When he was in Kindergarten, he used to make the most amazing box creations. Now that he was 9, his favourite material was Lego.

For Christmas and his Birthday, his family, knowing of his love of Lego, gave him numerous Lego kits. He happily built them following the instructions, but once they were built, he admired for a while, but soon got bored of looking at them on the shelf, so he would dismantle them and rebuild them in other ways, creating some of the most wonderful space ships and other machines.

He was keen to try new things, anything that was available to him. One night he watched his Mum as she was knitting a jumper for her little brother, and he asked her to teach him. Finding some knitting needles and wool, Mum sat and patiently taught him what to do.

Jimmy James was excited. Not only had he learned a new skill, but now he was able to make something special – a scarf for his favourite toy monkey, and a matching one for himself. For a little boy who usually couldn’t sit still for more than five minutes for fear of missing out on something, he would sit for ages, concentrating on getting the stitches just right. Even so, the scarf still ended up with a huge bulge in one end!

After what seemed like months, but was much closer to weeks, Jimmy James showed his knitting to his Mum. It was now long enough and he wanted to learn how to finish it. Mum cast off the stitches and handed him the finished scarf.

Puffing up just a little bit with pride, Jimmy James tied the scarf around his Monkey’s neck. Monkey looked really warm in his new scarf. Jimmy James couldn’t wait to start on the matching scarf for himself.

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