Kathy's basket making habit began with her mother some 20 years ago. Her mom started weaving baskets while Kathy was living overseas. When she moved back home, her mom gave her a handmade basket. Great as a handmade basket is, that one came with a string attached. If Kathy wanted any more...she'd have to learn to make them herself. With that, Kathy and her mom began taking classes together and went on weaving for years before becoming involved in other activities. Making only an occasional basket for a gift here and there, Kathy was on to other things. Years passed and Kathy's conversations with her friend Nina lead to reminiscing about how they used to weave baskets. Reminiscing lead to a renewed interest, which in turn lead to finding new classes. It was a very long time ago when Kathy and Nina began their Tuesday night classes with Helen Springer. All those years ago, their classes were at Create-A-Craft where Helen was teaching. When the doors at Create-A-Craft closed; the doors at The Basket Sampler opened and the rest is history. When Kathy talks about her most enjoyable aspects of basket weaving, one can understand why she went back to it. She says that when ordinary materials like prepared rattan, plants from the garden or fields, or even yarns or fabric, can be turned in to something functional; that is her favorite part. Kathy likes the versatility and says that, "The basket can be really simple or very challenging, depending on what you want to get out of it. With a few minor changes the same basic basket can be made to look many different ways. You can make free form one of kind pieces, or try to make something that has an historic appeal to it. After 20 years of weaving, there is always something new to try. Weavers themselves are a great group of people, always willing to share what they have learned." On the best of the basket memories, Kathy is like most all weavers. It's the friendship developed over time and creating together. In class, there is a common bond of weaving, but beyond that, she enjoys the bonds that develop through conversation. Class time chat covers all sorts of interesting life events like child birth, a new grand child, success at work or school, a death of loved one, and even dogs that chew up your new carpet. At convention, it doesn't stop. You can find teachers that go out of their way to help with a problem or offer encouragement to support you in trying something new. Kathy has a fond memory of her class with Grace Kabel taken a few years ago and says she now wishes she had taken more opportunities to learn in her classes. Like Kathy and Nina, many of the students today were in some way associated with Create-A-Craft all those years. We don't really know if Helen brought the students or if the students brought Helen, but we do know that Linda keeps us all together and we consider ourselves fortunate. We wonder if PJ knows what a bond was created at his store all those years ago.