Strippin' the Sheets

Snip and strip...then into the pile.

Very therapeutic and relaxing...

   Some days ago, while cleaning the back storage area of our barn and workshop, I found a barrel full of old sheets. The barrel was a storage barrel from my husband's grandparents' farm; brought here many years ago and eventually given to us. Surprisingly, it was filled with old sheets from their home.
   Soft and worn..crisp from years of being dried on the line in the north Texas sun, sheet after sheet were pulled from the barrel. Some I recognized from the beds we slept on when we visited the farm. Sadly, none of the sheets fit our bed sizes. Not really wanting to donate these nostalgic mix matched sheets I decided to repurpose them.
   Strippin' the sheets is a contagious activity. Anyone in the near vicinity is drawn into the action of nip, tug, tear and strip. Using a ruler, I make little snips in the sheet every two inches across the top. Once the sheet is scored we simply grab the sheet and give it a firm pull all the way down. The strips are piled according to color in a storage tub.
   For some reason the sound of tearing fabric seems to draw helping hands from all round the house. My farm boy loves to help strip sheets- feeds his destructive male soul :) A few years ago, during a nasty hurricane, my mother sat with me stripping sheets to pass the time. I think about that every time I walk on one of the rugs we made from the strips made that day.
   Yes, it's rugs; the plan for these sheet strips. Handmade in double crochet fashion- ovals and rounds, these soft cotton sheets will continue their usefulness as rag rugs. Homey and soft, scattered all around the farm house; in front of the kitchen sink, beside the tub, at the foot of my rocking chair or by the side of a teen's bed.
   So as the sun sets beyond the trees on the east side of the barn, my hands will find their way to the basket of stripped sheets. A wooden crochet hook, hand made by my farm boy just for this purpose, will dip and scoop the strips of fabric wielding a web of beauty and practicality. As the woven strips take shape reaching just the right size, a new purpose will come from this day of stripping the sheets.