Knitting has always seemed too complicated and confusing for me to learn and since I’m not always the most coordinated person in the world, the thought of trying to create something with two sticks and a ball of yarn always terrified me. However, I did learn to crotchet when I was a child and crocheting has always brought me the peaceful sense of bliss that comes from creating something with my own hands.
Although knitting is my Mom’s craft of choice, she taught me to crochet when I was a child and she was always the one to help fix my mistakes and advise me on what colors would look good together. I remember a lot of cold winter afternoons spent in front of the fireplace creating together. Her specialty was sweaters and when I was in seventh grade she made me a beautiful v-necked sweater from brown and white flecked yarn that I wore until well after I graduated from college. Unfortunately, when I moved home from Okinawa, the box containing the sweater got lost. I was heartbroken that the sweater that had always made feel wrapped in my mother’s love was gone.
When I was a teenager I made two beautiful afghans with a star motif. One in shades of green, yellow, and brown, and one in blues. I gave the green one to my mother as it went with our brown sofa and kept the blue one for myself. That afghan graced our first sofa and it traveled with us all the way to Okinawa and back. When I bought my first house and ended up with a living room decorated in browns and greens, my mom gave me back the other afghan and it now graces my living room. It serves as a reminder of the girl that I was and of my mom who spent time teaching me how to crochet.
I crotcheted my mother a rose colored shawl when I was growing up and she treasured it, but when it came time to bury my Grandmother Thursa, my dad’s mom, my mother wrapped that shawl around my grandmother’s shoulders so she would always be wrapped in our family’s love.
Baby sweaters are my mother’s specialty and when I was little she’d knit a beautiful red, white, and blue dress that my daughter ended up wearing. It’s incredible to look at pictures of my daughter wearing that beautiful dress and know that I once wore the same dress. My mom also made a beautiful christening gown that both of my children wore when they were younger and we’ve saved for any future generations. Although I didn’t have the time to spend crocheting when my children were small, I did make them both something special. A small afghan with hearts for my son and a dress for my daughter. I wanted them to know the same feeling of being wrapped in a mother’s love.
My daughter isn’t as klutzy as her mother is and my mom taught her to knit several years ago. I always loved watching my beautiful teen aged daughter sit with her grandmother and knit. Caitlin loves spending time in yarn stores dreaming over the beautiful yarns. She hasn’t ventured beyond scarves yet, but I’m confident that one day she’ll knit something bigger.
Cairn by Cairn 