My grandmother made this for me. She took up crochet again later in life. She was taught by the nuns in grade school in Montreal. She made doilies and lace as a girl and young woman. When I was a child she made me hats. My favourites always had real bunny tails as pom poms. Sometimes she added one and sometimes two to the hat. Each time she made me a hat, the pom poms came off the old and onto the new. Sometime in the 70's when her friend Barbara developed arthritis in her hands, her doctor suggested she crochet to keep her hands limber. My grandmother thought it a wonderful idea for her hands too and started crocheting again. Mainly she made these afghans. All her grandchildren got them in various colours in the same stitch pattern. She passed away in January 1980.
This afghan and I have a long history together. I lived in Winnipeg when she made it for me. The colours are classic '70's and so is the yarn. It was for its time cheap acrylic probably purchased at Woolco. (Woolco was later bought out by Walmart.) The colours have faded a bit but there are no holes or other evidence of wear and tear. This is an acrylic that archeologists a thousand years from now digging up land fills will find in still pristine condition. I wonder what they will make of that.
The original purpose was as an afghan to protect against the winter cold. I used it as such for many years. Also, for many years it slept in various cupboards as I moved from home to home. I found the colours tiresome after time but could not bear to part with it. For a few years it even served as a blanket for the dogs. No damage done.
It has been through the washer and dryer countless times. Now it has gained a new purpose and gets pulled out when ever we need something to sit on. I foresee that we are going to spend the rest of our lives together finding new uses as we age. It will be my executor who will decide its final fate. I won't be able to bring myself to part with it. This afghan is everlasting thanks to the acrylics of the 70's. I bet there are still countless balls in stashes and countless afghans still in use.
I haven't quite shaken the cough. It is still with me but not as bad as before. I have one antibiotic pill left but the rest of the meds are done. I think it just has to run its course.
Because I haven't felt great this week, I wanted some comfort knitting and to me that means socks. I started these thinking I could work on them from time to time. Instead, I simply could not stop until they were done.
See done!
I am keeping these. These are from my go to sock yarn - Paton's Kroy - dug up out of my stash.
I thought when they were done I could move on to more knitting for the fair. I must have been taking a nap when I wound up a skein of yarn I picked up at the Woodstock Fleece Festival. I wanted socks with a bit of orange in them. I can't explain this desire but I think I went too far orange.
I assembled the tea cozy.
The shape is meant for a standard small brown betty tea pot. I don't have one of those so my camel tea pot stepped in as model. The tea cozy is symmetrical in real life and not misshapen at all. I am excited though. I can add 2 more finished items to the fair storage drawer.
The fronts of the girl's sweater are done and the sleeves cast on.
I think I want to finish this sweater before I start a new fair project. The reindeer is in the exact same state of assembly as last week. At my rate of assembly of this one, I worry I will be in a panic the night before the entries are due trying to sew it together and hoping it does not look like an 9 year old did the stuffing and stitching.
No comments:
Post a Comment