From My Grandmother’s Needles
My grandmother is the one who taught me how to knit when I was 7 years old. It’s always been something to connect us. Whenever I’m home for a visit, she always asks me what I’m working on and shows me hers. She calls me for help deciphering modern patterns and we constantly argue over whether or not to make a gauge swatch. So it was no surprise when she knit a matching pair of newborn sweaters when I had my twins. This tradition has continued since then. Every year she knits them a pair of matching sweaters to wear for their Santa photo, and even though they are too old for Santa photos they still get their annual Christmas sweater.
Things have had to adjust as she got older. When they were 8 it became too hard for her to see well enough to do the finishing work of sewing the sweater pieces together and picking up stitches for necklines and button bands. So, she started sending them to me, in pieces and with the accompanying yarn and buttons, to block and finish for her. Although I’m saddened that her physical limitations are making this craft more difficult for her, I love that the sweaters have become a joint project, something shared between us before being loved by my children.
I did all the detailing on those Spiderman faces!
A side effect of this arrangement is that, when the sweaters were done, I found myself holding the bag with the leftover yarn. Almost always acrylic and in loud, children’s colours I wouldn’t use in my own projects, I needed some way to use them up or give them away. It was around this time that I saw a Facebook post from some women who were organizing a blanket drive for the NICU of one of our local hospitals. It’s a hospital I’m familiar with; although it’s not where I had my own children, it was the only place that held pre-natal classes specifically for parents of multiples, so I loved the thought of giving back and immediately signed up.
As you saw in my previous blog post, pin loom weaving is the perfect craft for this exact type of project! It was the perfect way to use up small amounts of yarn and support new babies who needed extra warmth to grow (and send some love to new families, as well). I also had the boys make some Christmas cards for the families, as well. I did one solid colour blanket where I got to practice overshot weaving and another in a 2-toned gingham design with a blue border because I had more blue left over than yellow.
This shows how versatile the pin loom can be as a tool for using up scrap. With smaller amounts of yarn (a square takes up about 5g or less) you can do a multicoloured scrap blanket, but I loved really playing with my options and letting the scrap yarn dictate how I used it. If you have the itch to make NICU blankets, you can get a pin loom here and I have a beginner instruction course here.
My grandmother is in her 90s now, so this era of the Christmas sweater is coming to an end. But the love that has flowed in a chain from her, to me, to my children, to premie babies who I will never meet, has left a thumb print on the world. Which is what crafts like these are all about.