This is not about crafting things for an emergency, this is about having to wait in the car for a half-hour, and despite my best intentions I still have not squirreled away a small spindle and fiber about my person, and I was getting fidgety. My oldest handed me a fast food napkin. I tore it into strips and twined it. Ah. Better. We almost always have a stash of napkins in the car, and the resulting twine is surprisingly robust, for a short stapled fiber stuck together with starch. So there we go, fidgets fidgeted with readily available materials.

I can no longer take things touching my neck. It started when my kids were little and I stopped wearing necklaces because being choked out by my baby was not on my to-do list. I tried wearing necklaces again when they were past the grabby stage, but could only tolerate light pieces or short sessions with heavier adornment. Then crew necks started bothering me. Sheesh.

In the heat of the Texas summer, many turn to cooling devices worn around the neck. I’ve tried, really, and after 5 minutes I simply can’t take it. I’d rather be hot than have the pressure on my carotid (or maybe it is the jugular, but nothing can brush the back of my neck either, so there we go.) So I took a “cooling” neck gaiter, cut it down, and resewed bits to fit my wrists. Wetting them down certainly produces a cooling effect, and having them arranged in wrinkles rather than folded increases the evaporation. We’ll see how they do for me this summer. If they do work, I need to make some in nicer colors!