Baby blankets and great grandmothers.

Since starting this blog I've been thinking a lot about all the projects I've tackled over the years. The projects that stand out most in my mind are my crocheted baby blankets. I've completed and gifted so many of them I can't even remember how many I've made.

I remember when I was about 7 my great grandmother taught me how to crochet. But before she could teach me to crochet, we had to prepare the yarn. She had me take a whole skein of yarn - it was white - and roll it into a ball. Then she took a 2 liter coke bottle - this was back when coke bottles had an opaque colored plastic base that the rest of the bottle sat in that was most likely for balance but who knows - pried the black bowl off, cut off the bottom of the bottle, tucked the ball of yarn into the black plastic bowl, snaked the free end of the yarn up through the mouth of the bottle and shoved the bottle top back into the black bowl.

 The purpose of this was of course to keep the yarn from getting tangled into a giant mess. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent untangling yarn as an adult. If only I'd learn from this first lesson.

She was very patient with me once we took our hooks in hand. Patient but not doting. She was a firm teacher and didn't mince words. Mama Bert (her name was Bertha) taught me to wrap the yarn around the fingers of my right hand so I always had grasp of the yarn. This took me a long time to master. She taught me that my stitches shouldn't be too tight because otherwise I'd never be able to get the hook back through them. Again, it took some time to master this.

We started with the chain stitch. I think I made a chain the length of the house. Then she taught me single crochet which left me with, you guessed it, a thicker chain the length of the house. I later on taught myself all of the additional stitches and got plenty of tips and tricks from my stepmother. Now, I can crochet now with my eyes closed, no problem. Thankfully not many projects require that. I can't be held accountable for falling asleep if I'm required to keep my eyes closed for any period of time. I've made many baby blankets, scarves, full-sized blankets, shrugs, hats - all because of my the patience of my sweet Mama Bert.

I think it's important to pass along these skills to our children, grandchildren and in this case, great grandchildren. I don't have kids of my own but maybe one day I will. Meantime, I'll share my skills with my nieces and nephews in hopes that they'll one day be able to tell stories about how they learned fillintheblank from their crazy Aunt Woo Woo. And I'm sure I should be working on a blanket right now. Seems like everyone is having babies these days!