This week is Knitting and Crochet Blog week – what on earth does this mean you might ask. Well it first of all means I may be (ok I am) a bit of a geek for knowing this, but it is a week of daily prompts or topics that knitting or crochet bloggers are asked to blog about. This means a different blog post daily for many bloggers and there are many that are knitting and crochet based ( I know that this may shock my many non-knitting friends). I have had the opportunity to read some great posts so far this week – but I have not had the time or inclination to participate…… until today.  I read the topic this morning and knew that I had to post on this – how could I not.

My knitting hero is simple this is not a question I have to think about for a second, and there are not many questions like that in my life. It is my Grandma Avis – she knit a lot. That is probably an understatement she knit all of the time she had a chair set in front of their large living room window on a main street and everyone in their small town knew that she sat there and knit. She knit us all afghans, mittens, hats, baby sets for I think every new born in town, and sweaters. Now these were not just sweaters but the ones from the Mary Maxim catalogue that had designs on the back – siwash sweaters. We had them all of us grandkids our parents, friends and they all reflected our interests curling rocks, kittens, trucks, argos, snow mobiles, you name it we had it on a sweater and they were great.

I remember lots about my Grandma she was amazing, I remember every detail of their house, the smell when we got there, where the pictures hung on the walls, where the christmas tree sat every year (that is the only time her chair moved from the window so the tree could sit there for all to see) her chair with an ottoman next to it full of wool. All of these memories include her knitting in that chair I remember vividly every Saturday our world came to a stop while Stampede Wrestling was on TV as kids if we made noise my Grandpa would tell us to be quiet during this time or go out and play in traffic (somewhat jokingly) my uncles were there to watch and my parents and us grandkids were there doing something and my Grandma watched and knit. If you paid attention the clicking of her metal needles changed with the action in the wrestling match the more action in the match or the more controversial the wrestler speaking the quicker her needles clicked. Yet I don’t ever remember her missing a stitch or really ever looking at the pattern now that I think about it.

My Grandma taught me to knit every once in a while my cousins and I would ask she would then dig out some plastic needles, let us pick from the pile of yarn left overs and cast on for us. I don’t think we ever finished any of the half-hearted scarves or baby doll blankets we started but she always let us start. I never took to the knitting though always abandoned it when I left for the day. She has been gone now for over 20 years and I miss her terribly, even now I am crying as I write my memories of her. But if I go downstairs there is a cupboard of knitted afghans made with her hands, my kids have siwash sweaters with snowmen and kittens on the back. Not from her she never had the chance to meet my kids, but when they were little my non-knitting mother learned to knit just so that she could make them those sweaters that I remember from my childhood(I have spent many hours tonight trying to upload a picture of this sweater – but alas the computer is winning- I may edit. I have as an adult learned to knit with the help of you tube.  I have joined Ravelry, a facebook like page that is all people who knit and crochet with free patterns to look at and use, forums to ask for help in it is amazing the things you can see and learn.

Everytime I post a question for help with my newest problem (and I have  in my knitting)I wish I could pick up the phone and call her to ask. When I look through the pages of pattern I wish I could show her all of the amazing things you can see and have access to from other knitters all over the world now with a click of the keyboard. I imagine the things she could make and see with this technology – she had patterns from Mary Maxim and the local department store. That being said the store where she bought those pattern books is still open in the small town about an hour from where I live now.

On a good weekend I get to drive by the house where she lived, see that spot in the window and if I have time go to that very store and pick out the yarn for my latest creation.