Today is a bit of a sad day for me. 10 years ago, while I was in Australia vacationing, my mom passed away from a stroke. She had gotten up in the middle of the night for a glass of water and simply collapsed on the floor. The doctors say she had died before she hit the floor and felt no pain. My mom was a very special lady to a lot of people, but especially to me. Whenever I am knitting people always ask me if my mom taught me how. Unfortunately, it is on of the few things she did not. As a matter of fact, I never saw my mother with a pair of knitting needles in her hand. She could crochet though, boy, could she ever. She would start with this impossibly thin ball of thread (okay, it was crochet cotton but it looked like string) and an even smaller hook and just go. It was mesmerizing to watch her fingers fly as she crocheted. If she was alive today I’m sure she would give Lily chin a run for her money. Now that I’m an avid knitter I regret not paying more attention to her and learning to crochet from her. Things are what they are though and my knitting would have been shaped entirely differently if I had.
Being from Jamaica, my mom was a very practical person. She often made tablecloths and dish cloths from her crochet. She would make quite a few squares and magically put them together. She would then soak the entire thing in a cornstarch solution and iron it out. When she was finished it would be stiff as a board and we had another tablecloth in the house. Even though I crochet (not nearly as well as I knit though) and understand how its possible to just crochet things out of thin air, I am amazed at the ability my mom (and any crocheter that can do the same) had. To have the ability to make something from nothing is a wonderful talent and one of the reasons I am so fascinated with knitting. When I look around and realize that most garments being worn started as a long strand of fiber I am truly amazed. Someone like my mom (and now me) came along and started to manipulate that fiber and ended up with a sweater, or socks, or scarf, or whatever. While she never taught me how to knit, my mom inspired me to create. Thanks for that mom – and a whole lot of other things too. Rest in peace.
Hugzzz 😎
