As I've been working on the afghan, I've been thinking a lot about my relationship to making things and where that began. It started with my grandmother, who made dresses and other items of clothing. I still can't sew, though I need to learn how. She also crocheted, and always had a good collection of afghans around. She loved them and I loved to snuggle in them. As a child, they were my favorite kind of blanket.
There is another influence on me that directly ties to Grandma though. It has to do with a book she used to read to me when I was little. The book is called The Goat in the Rug and it's by Charles L. Blood. The book is about a Navajo woman and the process she goes through to sheer her goat and then take the wool and add it to a blanket. We go through the whole process, from her sharpening her sheers to the actual weaving.
As a small child, this book fascinated me. Three/four year old me was a big fan of learning about process. My favorite part of educational TV was always when they would show how things were made. The goat story was my favorite though, because it was a continuing process. Geraldine (the goat) could provide lots of wool from many sheerings and her contribution was an important part of the household. It showed the interdependent relationship between people and animals and no one was fighting for their lives like poor Wilbur the pig.
Sometimes I forget that when I work on an afghan, or any crocheted project, I am celebrating my grandmother's legacy. These are the skills she taught me and part of the larger connection between us. If there is anything I would want to pass on to a kid, it would be my yarn skills. I feel very grateful they were taught to me.
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