Knitting

I have to tell you. . .
I NEVER thought I would be posting about knitting. BUT. . . you crafty gals have inspired me. Lucy Locket and Heckety and Ginny and Suzanne's mum and Lisa Boyer are all amazing knitters, and they make me think it would be fun. Not that I've never knitted before. It's just been a really long time. Like about 20 years, and then it was just a scarf. I made a mitten once, and then another mitten of a different size and color a year or so later. And half a sweater which my mom kindly finished for me.

So you see, I don't have the best track record when it comes to knitting.


But all that is about to change!
I ordered the above pictured pattern to make knitted snowmen - aren't they the cutest? How hard can a snowman be, I asked myself before I ordered it. Well, pretty hard to one who has never kfb in each stitch 12, but I'm determined to learn.

And speaking of knitting, do you want to hear another memory? This one is from the summer of 1963. We had been to visit our grandparents, some 350 miles away. We packed the things we would need for a week away from home, knowing there wasn't room in the car for ALL we would have liked to take. After a pleasant visit spent swimming in the lake and visiting with our grandparents, we made the long drive home. As we were pulling in the driveway, the neighbor across the street, a police officer, came over in uniform, to greet us.

He was sorry to have to tell us that our house had burned while we were gone. Not to the ground, but the inside was pretty well trashed. We spent the rest of the summer living first in a motel, then at a friends' house, and then in the shell of our house as it was being rebuilt.

My memory of that time centers around my mom and my aunt, who had come with her children to lend moral support. Those two dear ladies spent much of that visit sitting in aluminum lawn chairs in that shell of a house, knitting clothing for our troll dolls. Most of our playthings had been burned beyond recognition, so when Aunt Jan came, she brought us each a troll doll. Even my brother, because trolls were very cool back then, even for boys. I don't recall them using a pattern, they just picked up their yarn and needles, and pretty soon we had remarkable outfits for our trolls. And you know what? I still have them. I will post a picture one day, but today it is too cold to venture into the attic to find them.