Raising Faith by Melody Carlson Read Free Book Online

the breakfast dishes, washed out the coffee pot, and then went back to cutting out socks. She realized right away that it would be important to pin the pieces together so that the sizes didn’t get mixed up. She also made some mistakes with cutting the fabric with the wrong side out. But finally, she had what appeared to be eight pairs of socks, in various sizes, ready to sew together. It really didn’t seem too complicated.
    “How’s it going?” asked Grandma as Morgan was setting up her sewing machine.
    “You’re up from your nap,” said Morgan. “Feeling better?”
    “I can hardly believe I slept so long. Do you know that it’s after one already?”
    Morgan showed her how many pairs of socks she cut out. “I was just about to sew up this first pair. They’re my size, so I thought I could test them out to make sure I’m doing it right.”
    “Good thinking. And don’t forget to use the knit stitch. It takes longer, but it’s the only way you can sew a stretchy fabric like that fleece without having the seams pop open.”
    “I know,” said Morgan. “I just wish it wasn’t such a slow way to sew.”
    “Better slowly than holey.”
    Morgan laughed as she changed the stitch setting. “Some people might like ‘holy’ socks.”
    “Not ones with holes in them. And while you’re doing that, I’ll go put us together some lunch. We have some fine-looking turkey leftovers.”
    “Sounds yummy.”
    By the time Grandma called her to lunch, Morgan had one sock completely finished in the tiger design. She proudly took it in to show Grandma.
    “It looks fine, Morgan. Did it fit okay?”
    “I haven’t tried it yet.” Morgan sat down in a chair in the living room and peeled off her shoe and sock. “I guess it doesn’t matter which foot I put it on, does it?”
    “Not for socks, dear.”
    “Ugh,” groaned Morgan as she tried to force her foot into the sock. “This is not working … not at all.”
    “Let me see,” said Grandma.
    Morgan handed her the sock. “It doesn’t stretch, you know, to go over my foot. It’s too tight.”
    Grandma examined the sock and finally nodded. “I see what’s wrong.”
    “What?”
    Grandma stretched the fabric. “See?”
    “What?”
    “The stretch is going the wrong way. You need to cut them out so that the stretch goes widthwise. This one goeslengthwise. That’s why you couldn’t get your foot into it.”
    “Oh no,” said Morgan. “I never thought about that when I cut out the other socks. What if they’re all wrong?”
    “I doubt that they’ll all be wrong, dear.”
    “But some of them will be.”
    “At least it was only remnant fabric,” said Grandma. “Come and have some lunch, and we’ll figure it out later.”
    “I can’t believe I was so stupid,” said Morgan as she sat down at the kitchen table. “You’ve told me about the grain of the fabric before.”
    After lunch, they went to Morgan’s room to see what could be done about the sock dilemma. Morgan held up a pair of cut-out socks that were neatly pinned together. “I thought I was being so careful,” she said, “and all I did was mess things up.”
    “Don’t be so hard on yourself. I probably would’ve done the same thing. I’ve knit socks before, but making them out of fabric is new to me too.” Grandma sat on Morgan’s bed and examined the pieces that she had cut out, separating into two piles the ones that were going the right way from the ones that were going the wrong way. But the wrong-way pile was getting bigger and bigger.
    “This is hopeless,” said Morgan as she flopped down into her beanbag chair.
    Grandma chuckled. “Well, it looks like you have two pairs that are cut in the right direction.”
    “All that work for just two pairs of socks,” said Morgan sadly. “And I haven’t even sewn them yet.”
    “Just consider it a learning experience.”
    “But what about all the fabric I wasted?” Morgan looked at the big pile of colorful pieces.
    Grandma smiled.