Several months ago, my daughter found a crocheted blanket at an op shop. As we looked it over, we noticed that several of the squares were damaged. We decided to take it home with us and see if it could be saved. It was just before Christmas, so I washed it and tucked it away in the spare room.
Last week as I was cleaning the spare room, I found the blanket under a pile of my fabrics, so I pulled it out and decided to have a go at fixing it. Five hours later I had repaired the four damaged squares and the blanket was ready for its second life.
As I sat and worked on the repairs I wondered about the story behind the blanket. I thought about the time and love that went into the project. I thought about my own mother and all the crocheted projects she had made over the years.
Mum had always been a knitter, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that she took up crocheting. I remember my Aunt Shirley (mum’s younger sister) sitting with her and teaching her how to crochet. After those first lessons mum became a crocheting wizard.
I remember her making Christmas arrangements that she would sell to make a bit of extra money just before the holidays. She would take a large margarine container and punch holes all around the top edge. She would then crochet around until she had completely covered the container. She would crochet three chains to make a hanging basket and then fill the basket with fake flowers and other festive items. Mum would hang the baskets in the front window of our house with a little sign and people would stop and buy the arrangements.
The annual school tea and sale (fete) was always a busy time for mum. She would spend hours crocheting little items for the craft stall. One item I can remember her making was a little bonnet. She would crochet a tiny little bonnet, tie it on a lollypop, then she would draw a face on the lollypop. She made hundreds of these over the years and they were always a big hit with the kids.
I remember the bed spreads mum made for her sister Doreen. Aunt Doreen loved the colour mauve, so mum made her a set of single bed covers in mauve and white. The centres of the squares were mauve roses, and the rest of the square was white.
As I sat and stitched and remembered, I thought about all the blankets and other projects mum made over the years and I wondered how many of them made their way to a charity shop.
Thankfully, I have several that she made, including the first granny square blanket that she made in the 70s. I brought the blanket with me when I moved to Australia in 1990. Sadly it suffered a bit of damage to one of the squares and has been packed away for years. My recent mending experiment prompted me to finally make the needed repairs and I’m so glad I did. Check it out…
The repair work doesn’t match perfectly. The yellow is a little lighter and the dark blue is slightly different. I’m happy with the results and think mum would be pleased that her blanket is once again being enjoyed.
Branches of my tree 