Life and Family and a Blanket

It's been a long, strange summer.  I was very ill this spring and summer, as was my father in law.  I recovered, but sadly, he did not.  Lou is in the final days/weeks of his life, and he's still teaching us all.

Lou went from being uncomfortable to being hospitalized over the period of a couple of weeks.  He is in incredible pain, but he never complains.  He's calm, patient, funny, and dignified.  His only concerns are for the welfare of his family.  Though bedridden at home now, he still wants to babysit his great-grandchildren.  Though unable to keep solid food down, he still tried his granddaughter's "healthy" smoothie, to be polite.  It didn't go well, but I'll never forget the gesture.

I wanted to help him somehow, and as a knitter I realized making an afghan would be a natural choice.  His favorite color is blue - "not too dark, but like the sky today.  It's always been blue."  But by the time I had sourced the yarn, I realized I'll never finish it in time for him to see or enjoy it. 

I'm doing the standard family vigil, caring for my mother in law, doing her housekeeping, serving coffee to out of town relatives, and hearing all the family stories that go by in these times.  Everyone is laughing and visiting, including Lou.  He once had a red convertible, and my mother in law used to drive it when they were dating even though she hadn't had lessons or a license.  Lou's grandfather used to make wine in the basement, and he had a special way of leaving the spigot so he could tell if anyone had been "tasting" it.  The "kids", now in their late fifties, just learned how he always caught them! 

Lou greets and thanks each visitor for coming.  He stays awake and makes conversation for hours, but the moment guests leave he closes his eyes and sleeps.  He doesn't do it out of pride.  It's respect for the people who've made the effort to visit.  Even though he's too weak to walk, he wants to holds the babies.  He'll keep tasting the food pressed on him by well-meaning loved ones.  That's Lou - kind, funny, respectful, patient, and dignified.  He's shown us how to live, and he's teaching us how to die.

I think I'll make the blanket anyway.  It will be impossible to work on it or use it without thinking of the kind man who inspired it.  I'll share the pattern with you soon.

SATs and knitting

It's time for my daughter to take the SATs.  I can't believe she's 17!  She's so grown up, and beautiful, and tall.  It's one of those milestones that has me looking back on her life.  And her life in knitting.

While I was pregnant, my mother-in-law crocheted her a beautiful baby blanket in a soft but sturdy cotton.  She was a winter baby, and it became a staple of our day to wrap her in the blanket in the car seat.

When she was still a baby, my childhood friend Lisa started knitting for her.  There were strawberry caps and lemonhead hats.  She was adorable in all of them.  A happy and busy baby, she liked to show off her hats to passers by as we would shop and run errands.  She would "vogue" for anyone willing to watch.

At about 7 she wanted to learn to knit (I guess I made it look like fun?) and started knitting up thin little ribbons of knitting that she would use as collars on her stuffed animals.  This phase lasted for a couple of years.  Build-a-Bear animals, Beanie Babies, and even Elmo were very fashionable in their collars and scarves, and most of them involved glitter.

At 12 she wanted to participate in clothing some teddy bears given out by a local charity.  She made scarves and belts, and a couple of teddy bear sized baby blankets.  She considered herself a knitter.  The bears were adorable in their little outfits, and I was very proud.  She had taken to "borrowing" my fair isle mittens and earflap hats, and that spurred me to make her a knitwear wardrobe of her own.  Middle school being what it is, we quickly ended up with single mittens, missing hats, and many requests for "one more pair.  I won't lose them.  I promise."  And I knitted her several more pairs.

At 14 she started getting into the scarf craze, and picked out some yarns for me to make her a fashion scarf.  Shimmering ribbon yarn became a scarf, which was worn twice before it was declared "too hot" to wear all day.  I'm grateful she chose colors that I wear, because I've enjoyed it ever since.

At this point, she's not into knitwear or knitting.  She likes military-influenced jackets over trendy t-shirts, and goes mitten, scarf and hat free most days.  If there is a hat, it's a canvas cadet cap. 

As she moves on in her life, I still have many of the things that she knitted, and that I knitted for her.  It's funny to me how each piece brings to life a chunk of our history.  Vivid memories flood back.  And it makes me wonder what she'll want me to knit next.  Stuff for college?  A wrap for a party dress?  Will I have to wait until she needs baby blankets?  I don't know, but thinking about this knitted bond, past and future, makes me smile.

Adding Charts, Mr. Mittens

I've spent quite a bit of my time in the last few days typing dozens of my designs into my computer.  Then I started posting the charts to Ravelry.  (I'm LizMarino) So many!  Yeesh!  I will do my level best never to be this far behind again!

The first priority are the little ones: the dishcloth/babyblanket square size ones.  I had no idea there were so darn many of 'em.  The whole Lodge Collection is in, and I'm adding in Baby. After that, some more little squares. Next will be bigger blanket squares, then small garments, then larger garments. And that doesn't count whatever I end up designing in the meantime. Check the pages above from time to time, as I will be updating for the next couple days.

The Mr. mittens are going very well, but slowly as I have been dividing my knitting time between my needles and my keyboard.  I'll post a pick in a day or two.  The Reversible Brioche Scarf is sulking in the knitting bag for now, only about 6 inches long.  A girl has to make these tough choices sometimes...  I really owe the Mr some mittens, so they're still winning.  More time would be nice.  And more coffee...