Thursday, July 19, 2018

Memories and Knitting Love

Earlier this week, I started thinking about what I wanted to write about for this Weekly Roundup.  I spent the week organizing my house.  I re-organized my knitting studio to have my bare yarn and Etsy shop inventory in a good order.  I thought that this would be a good time to give a little tour of my "Purple Room" but then I spent Wednesday unpacking all of the boxes from my childhood.  I found some amazing things that I can't stop thinking about.

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My parents recently moved back to MA, and took this as an opportunity to give me all of the stuff that I still had at their house.  Yearbooks, photos, paperwork.  There was a lot to sort through.  I found a lovely picture of me and my Grandma Ruth from while I was in college tucked into an envelope addressed to my mother. This was taken at my Aunt Sarah's 99th birthday party, which was a big reunion for extended family.  A distant cousin took this picture of me and my Grandma, developed them, and then sent them to my mom.  The extra effort to get this photo of us to my mom was lovely.  Sharing pictures is so easy today that I forget what it took back then.

I found another treasure in my stash.  I opened a plastic bag to find some vintage patterns haphazardly thrown in.  There were some crochet ponchos, a sampler afghan, and then a paper envelope that had a tiny slip of paper inside.  I pulled it out to find my Grandma's handwriting with instructions for a knitting pattern.  As I take a closer look at the stitches, I realize that I had this exact afghan in my linen closet!

There's a story behind the blanket, too.  When my Grandma died, my grandfather, Papa, gave her belongings to my mother and her sisters.   My aunt took this blanket home specifically to see if I wanted it.  Since I'm not one of the daughters, I didn't get to "pick" things, but she thought that I might want something that Grandma had knit.  This was such a sweet, thoughtful gesture of my Aunt, and then this brought me to this loving moment of discovery.

When you knit something, every single fiber passes through your hands.  Multiple times.  You pour your time, and at least some thought into the creation.  When you knit an afghan, you think about how it could help decorate your home, or keep someone warm when they're cold.  I don't think I ever saw my grandmother knit, but I remember clearly when she went into the basement closet to take out her knitting supplies and gave them to me.  She wanted to give me more tools so I could explore this craft that she clearly loved.  Looking at the pattern for this blanket in her handwriting, it is as though I am watching her create it.  I can see her buying the yarn, sitting down to work on the strips.

When I sit down for the Weekly Roundup, I reflect on the past week of ChemKnits Land to decide what to write about.  Right now, as I'm sitting at my keyboard, I can only think of my Grandma.  Grandma, I miss you.  I love you.  I'm glad to be able to get some more hugs from you from this blanket.