Old Friends and New Friends

I am always amazed by how one hook or two needles can transform yarn into a blanket.  When I was little my favorite possession was the baby blanket that my grandmother crocheted for me.  That blanket and I were inseparable.  I loved that blanket to death.  The airy fibers could not stand up to my constant attention.  My youthful nimble fingers rhythmically danced over the blanket's ever nuisance to the beat of my heart.  After years of such love and devotion the beloved fibers began to give way.  First one hole appeared. Loose ends were tied.  Then another hole appeared.  More loose end were tie.  Eventually my dear friend looked quite ghastly to my family and friends.  They tried to negotiate with me about getting me a new blanket.  I turned a deaf ear on them.  My friend was still beautiful to me.  Plus, I needed my friend - the world is such a tough place when you are five.

One day my sister (the older one - the younger one was not yet on the scene) told me she had magical powers and could fix my blanket and could turn it into multiple blankets for me to love.  Truly this was a wonderful plan ....but could I trust her.....  I handed to her my beloved friend and watched her pull out scissors.  Panic shot through my heart.  This cannot be good.  She cut the gangly strands that connected sections that were still intact.  When she was done my blanket was in five to seven pieces.  She was so proud of herself. She thought she did good.  After she handed the pieces of my friend to me I busted out in tears and ran to my mom.  Mom was not able to fix my friend.  We put the pieces into an empty oatmeal container so that I could keep them all together.  I was devastated.   Carrying around the container just made me feel worse.  Anytime I tried to hold a piece of my blanket my fingers would start their dance and bits and piece would fall away.  I finally had to let my friend go.

You would think that was the end of the story.   A few years later someone gave me a kids craft book that showed how to knit and crochet.  I did the best I could to learn but it just never looked right.  My great aunt was in town for a brief visit so she helped me clean up my technique.  I tortured everyone with baby pink and purple (clearance bin yarn) scarves I finally went ahead and splurge on 23 skeins of non clearance yarn.  Just enough to make a knit (the only stitch I knew) blanket for my bed.  I was diligently plugging away when news came that my sister-in-law was going to have a baby that year.  I wanted to give that baby a friend of their own so I gave up half of my hard earned yarn and knitted a baby blanket.  I did not understand the importance of matching skein lots back then.  When I finally got back to my blanket I figured I had time to get the missing skeins...I was a teenager living on a weekly allowance and it was going to take a bit to save up the finances to buy the skeins.  So I waited until I was halfway done and went to get the yarn only to find out that they did not have two of my colors anymore.  I went from dark blue and light blue to dark pink and light pink. I adjusted.  I could deal with that.  It was after I realized that my previous white was not as white as my new white that my zest for knitting slowed down.  Over the next few years I sporadically knit my way to the last skein.  It was News Years Eve as I was determined to finish that year so I had only until midnight.  I was sitting next to my boyfriend watching Dick Clark and knitting furiously. It was down to the wire but I did it and I happily once again had a friend.  This friend was knitted not crocheted.  It was knitted as tightly as I could...no tempting holes to wiggle my fingers in and wear out the strands.  The question was would I love this blanket as much as I had the other.

So here we are twenty years later.  The boyfriend and I moved on but the blanket is now my dear old friend and I love it very much.  It's a different love than my first blanket.  A more mature, less destructive love.   I do not carry it around 24/7 but I do sleep with it almost every single night.  The nights I do not I tend to have trouble sleeping.  This is a bit of a problem as hubby and I have a King sized bed and my dear friend only covers my half.  And sometimes in the middle of the night I wake up shivering and find hubby is curled up with my friend.  So to be ahead of the game I am working on a new friend who while not king sized will be a bit wider and will be around to take the burden off my dear old friend so that I do not kill another blanket by loving it too much.