My grandmother taught me how to knit.
\nI’m sure I’ve mentioned this before. She was more of a crocheter than a knitter, though. I inherited my love of yarn from her, if not the method of working the yarn.
\nMy most vivid memory of her teaching me was when I tried to teach myself to rib. I was pretty young, but in trying to change from knit to purl, I’d been passing the yarn over the needles instead of under, and I couldn’t figure out what I’d done wrong to double my stitch count and end up with a row of holes. Once a lace knitter, always a lace knitter, I guess.
\nI remember watching her pull needles out of her knitting and just rip out mistakes, then pop all the stitches back on the needle. I was amazed, sure that I’d never be able to do that.
\nAnd I remember watching her knit, the needles flying while mine moved painstakingly slowly. I also knew I’d never, ever be that fast.
\nMost of her knitting was done in cheap 8 ply (DK) acrylic. It’s no less valuable for that. Emily has a large white shawl that Grandma crocheted while I was pregnant. She also crocheted some lovely baby things for her, which I’ve since passed on to other babies.
\nUp until about 2 years ago, when her arthritic fingers and failing memory betrayed her, she was still crocheting lap rugs for the disabled, and anyone else who wanted one. She was proud when she told me that the centre liked hers best, because they were just the right size and they didn’t get caught in the wheels of the wheelchairs.
\nI can pull my needles out of my knitting and confidently frog it now, then put all the stitches back on the needle, and I can knit quickly, and I wish I’d never given away those baby things.
\nShe passed away around midnight last night. It wasn’t unexpected, we were all with her, and it was peaceful. We were reminiscing around her bedside when she took her last breath. She’d been suffering with a chest infection, and it was hard to listen to her struggling for each breath.
\nShe’d struggled for a great many things in her life, but she doesn’t have to any more.
\nThank you, Grandma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My grandmother taught me how to knit. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before. She was more of a crocheter than a knitter, though. I inherited my love of yarn from her, if not the method of working the yarn. My most vivid memory of her teaching me was when I tried to teach myself to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.randomknits.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.randomknits.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.randomknits.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.randomknits.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.randomknits.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.randomknits.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.randomknits.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.randomknits.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.randomknits.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}