I was a Tupperware Lady!
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In 1976 we moved from Melbourne to Adelaide, along with our 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter.  Now this was before the establishment of formal play groups.  Child care was not something easily available, certainly not used by anyone who was not working.  Basically, you relied on neighbours and friends.  So there I was in a strange city, knowing no-one and stuck at home with two young children. 

We had previously spent 14 months living in Canberra, when we had just the one toddler.  Given the location of our home, and the nature of Canberra society back then, I spent a miserable time, stuck at home with a young child, soon pregnant again, and only one neighbour.  With the move to Adelaide, I was determined to at least meet some people.  I realised that people who had lived there for some time already had their friends and neighbours – their network of people – so it was up to me to get to know them, not wait for them to approach me.  BUT this was not easy for me, a quiet, introverted person.
 
Initially we lived in a rental property while we looked for a home to buy.  Soon after moving in, I saw a couple of neighbours out on the street chatting, so I went out and introduced myself.  While I did get to know them a little, even visiting their homes a couple of times, this association did not last as we soon found a home to purchase in another suburb.  Here there were a number of families with children around the same ages as our children.  Things were at least a little less lonely.

Then one afternoon, one of these neighbours had a Tupperware Party, and of course I went along.  Before I knew what I was doing, I was talking with the demonstrator about how to become a demonstrator myself.  I suspect that at first she did not believe I was serious.  But before long I had my “kit” and some bookings.  I got out of the house, met a few people, and in general for a couple of years enjoyed the activity.

I stopped being a Tupperware Lady when I returned to full time work in Information Technology.  By this time our son was at school and our daughter at kindergarten.  I had been reasonably successful, and the distributor wanted me to continue on a part time basis.  But I had learnt that this was not for me any longer.  I do not regret the time I spent with Tupperware.  There were many skills learned that I took into my professional career. 

Over the years, I have had to lead teams, meet new people, facilitate sessions of varying sized groups of people.  My ability to do all of these, and many other things I attribute to what I learnt as a “Tupperware Lady”.

Many people know about my passion for knitting, but I am reasonably sure no-one here knows about it.

I cannot remember clearly about who or when I learnt to knit.  I do have some vague memories of my grandmother teaching me something, but she died when I was 14.  And I am sure there was some sort of teaching from my mother.

I vaguely remember starting to knit myself a jumper when I was a teenager, but cannot remember if I finished it.  The first thing I remember clearly knitting was when I was around 20.  It was for the first of the girls in my class at school who had a baby towards the end of our third year at University.  I decided to knit something for her baby – a hooded jacket.

I cannot remember my next project clearly, but I know that I knitted some bits and pieces for my first baby. I have some photos of him wearing a red jumper that I knitted.  And of course there were other pieces for our second child. 

It was a few years later that I really started knitting.  I cannot remember the full order of things, but my sister-in-law asked me to knit a jumper for her daughter, then another for her son.  There were a few for our children, for my husband, for myself.  They were getting more and more complex.

Then the children in the next generation of the family started to arrive – my sister’s daughter was the first to have a baby.  I knitted a teddy bear, a jumper, some socks with bells for her baby. 
I found other toys to knit.  I was still knitting other items, but the toys became a passion for a while.  Even today, whenever there is a new baby in the family, there is a teddy knitted in a variety of colours.  I have given them to friends, and sold a few.  And I have sold various toys over the years.

But the passion has moved on.  I bought a kit for a small “lap rug” and knitted this up for my granddaughter.  Her mother liked it so much that she asked for one for her birthday.  Then I knitted one for my mother-in-law in a different pattern, and quite a bit bigger.  Again, my sister-in-law got involved, requesting a similar one to her mother’s in a different colour combination.  She liked it so much, she wanted cushion covers to mix and match.  And of course, then she wanted a second one, a bit different, but still the same colour combination.

And I have moved on to lacy shawls and scarves.  And, there is a group of knitters (although some crochet) who meet at the library on Wednesday afternoons.  Many are working on squares to make into rugs for charity.
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Having studied science/maths at University, and working in the IT industry for 40 years, it has been really fulfilling to know that I can be creative.