Remembering......

Today would have been my mothers 88th birthday. She has been gone over 20 years and I still miss her so much. Last night, while plying wool, I thought of her. A strong, good memory.

I was about to put the plied wool on the wool winder to come out with this neat little cylinder of wool, all ready to be knit from, easy since you can just pull it from the middle, like the skeins you buy in the store, and then I remembered something.....something very special.

When I was a child I sat for what seemed like hours, arms held apart, raised about chest high, holding yarn while my mother turned it into this incredibly perfect ball. I did this often and so didn't my sisters because my mother was an avid knitter and there were lots of skeins to be turned into yarn balls. There were no pull skeins in those days. I thought for a minute about what I was doing and decided to take my plied yarn and roll it into a ball, just like my mother did. Her yarn balls were perfect and I watched her so many times as a child turn the ball just right to create this wonderful orb of wool. I sat there alone in my craft room that has an old kerosene heater in it, just like I remember from my childhood, I don't use it, but it gives me a reminder of long cold winter nights as a child, when I would be mesmerized by the diamond shapes that danced on the ceiling from the little heater. I sat silently rolling a ball, wishing my mom was next to me and we were chatting along as we did so long ago. Stories told and a million childhood questions answered, always with patience and love, even when I would let the yarn slip off one wrist by mistake. Today mothers set scheduled times for mother and daughter days, to shop, go out to eat, something like that. I had time alone with my mother, with long wonderful conversations but they were at home, holding yarn and winding wonderful balls of colorful wool that would be turned into beautiful things to wear. I think I was lucky.

Thanks mom, if you are looking down from above, know that you are missed and so well loved.

a ball of my Shetland yarn, made with memories

the kerosene heater

The wool coat my mother knit for my sister, its amazing and I treasure it. She made me one too, but mine was made of synthetic yarn and ended up a little "pilly" so it got passed on to someone else.