Grandma used to crochet squares into afghans.
Aunt Tillie used to crochet too. She made edgings for pillowcases. I was always amazed at how thin the thread could be for crocheting. She used two colors and mingled rick rack in with the thread.
By the time I got married I had two afghans and at least fifteen pairs of pillowcases with crocheted edges in my hope chest. That was a long time ago. I'm down to just two pillowcases and one afghan. The pillowcases wore out from use. I took the crocheted edges off the cases and saved some of the edges. I don't know where the second afghan ended up.
My mother was good at crocheting. I remember she crocheted gold shoes for my walking doll; Miss Sweet Sue. But that's another story for another day.
For some reason I could never catch on to that crocheting thing. I could never find my loop. And if I did, my stitches were all different sizes. My patience wore out.
So my grandmother tried me on knitting. She was the one to get the teaching assignment because we were both left-handed. Now for some reason I caught on to knitting. And I decided to make Grandma an afghan. Purple and white were my colors of choice. It was made with knitted rectangles that actually had a design (pattern) to them; called the basket weave. I was so proud of the end result. I even learned how to make fringe. And Grandma was very impressed as you would expect a grandmother to be.
The afghan is back with me again. And that's just fine. After Grandma passed away my mother had it for a number of years. And then after Mom passed away, and we emptied her hope chest, there was the afghan. My siblings decided I should have it back.
The purple and white afghan sits in my guestroom for any welcomed visitors to use. Whenever I walk by and look at it, a flood of fond memories come back. Aren't family treasures great?
And now, I have been teaching my nieces, Kate and Allyson, to knit. Their stitches are still loose, and they drop the loop a lot, but I'm having a fabulous time. They seem pretty thrilled with their accomplishments. And I'm just as proud as an aunt could be. Maybe one day one of them will want the purple and white afghan for their guestroom. And I'll tell them the whole story.
