After a while, I started feeling a bit better, so I thought I'd start wrapping Christmas presents. I went into what used to be Cody's room and has now become a storage room to get the wrapping paper. I am working on cleaning his room out, so I picked up a few books that had been stacked on his bed to put them back into the book shelf.
There, on the shelf, I found a large brown envelope with my name on it. I didn't remember it being there before.
"Huh?", I thought to myself, wondering what was inside.
I opened it up, and lo and behold, old knitting and crochet patterns that had belonged to my Grandma fell out!
In addition to loose patterns that had apparently been clipped from magazines or released as leaflets, there was a beginner's manual from 1949.
It had knitting, crochet, and tatting instructions.
It really was a how to book, even showing you how to cast on, using the long tail cast on method.
It also had a basic techniques section, and simple fixes to things like dropping a stitch.
Then there was a stitch dictionary,
followed by a few beginner patterns.
What a treasure that was!
My grandma knew how to knit, but she'd had a stroke when I was just three years old, leaving her right side paralyzed. She tried to carry on knitting and crocheting, with a block my grandpa made her so that she could hold her needle/hook between her knees as she sat on the couch.
She gave up knitting first, but still crocheted a few years longer. She eventually gave that up, too.
One of my biggest regrets from my childhood is not asking grandma to teach me how to knit. I'd wanted to, but my mother was afraid it would make her so sad that she couldn't knit any more that she talked me out of asking.
So, instead of learning to knit when I was 7, I learned when I was 30.
But the point is, I learned.
The desire, no, the need to knit is one that has been with me as long as I can remember, and I'm so glad I persevered in spite of all the people who tried to talk me out of it. Knitting is too hard. Knitting isn't easy. It's just not....here, try crochet instead.
I never could get into crocheting. Even today, when I have to crochet, it makes me tense and nervous. So I carry on knitting.
And I carry on dumping all my knitted stuff off on family members for Christmas presents.
Yes, here we have three washcloths with the initials of three of my cousins on them. They are for Christmas.
Now, these three cousins have never come to my blog before, but knowing my luck, today will be the ONE DAY they decide to visit.
Ummmm.......SURPRISE!!
And Merry Christmas!!
Oh, and I learned something I didn't know. Sears used to have their own brand of yarn. Sears brand yarn. They really did sell everything. Which reminds me of how much I miss the old Sears catalogs.
But that's another post for another time...
1 comment:
That is a great treasure. I have a box of old recipes that my grandmother collected. Now and then I find a scrap piece of paper - maybe an old school assignment of some cousin's - with a recipe written on the back. Pretty cool. It is like a blessing.
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