Skip to main content

The Best Gift is the Giving!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013 Happy New Year to all my followers and all my Best Wishes to you for a happy, prosperous and productive 2013!Today is a day for reflecting only fleetingly on the past year and more importantly, on what's to come in the New Year. There are many joys during the holidays, getting together with family among the most important. Happily, we had the entire immediate family at our house this year. As the grandchildren grow so quickly, it is important to make the most of that opportunity. Soon they will want to stay home and enjoy Christmas morning in their own house. I still, all these years later, remember the first time we decided to go to Grandma and Grandpa's houses (two sets of grandparents in one state) for Christmas with the kids. We lived in South Florida and made the trek to Indiana with the kids, dog and gifts in tow. As I recall, the girls were young enough that we were able to hide Santa's gifts fairly easily. I don't remember all the details of this trip and I think it went pretty smoothly, although it was exhausting to have two Christmases in two cities with two sets of grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles. What I do remember is that it was the year in which we decided all future Christmases would be spent at home! I completely understand my daughter's wish to start traditions for her own children and to stay at home for Christmas morning next year. She and her husband want to enjoy the sparkle in their kids eyes and the joy and excitement of Santa's arrival in their own home. I have a year to begin planning for that reality and to figure out where we will fit into the picture. For now, I am basking in the success of a special gift I crocheted for Chloe this year. She has loved Minnie Mouse since she was 3 and 1/2 and her second birthday party was planned around a Minnie theme. Back in September, I got the idea to make her a Minnie blanket. I searched around the Internet and ended up buying a graph from Cozy Crochet Concepts: . I worked on this Tapestry Crochet project for over two months. I was glad I started in plenty of time to get it finished well before Christmas.
Since the package was fairly large, she wanted to open it first. It is not always the best idea to open the biggest package first, I've learned from experience. Once open and spread out, she smiled and said, "It's Minnie" and then moved on to the next one! Her birthday is near Thanksgiving, so she is expert in opening presents and thinks all presents are for her. Did I expect her to run to me with a big hug and say "Thank you, Gigi; that's the best present ever"? No, she is only three, after all. My daughter loved the blanket and I know it will be treasured in the years to come. What I do expect is that the effort, talent and love that went into making the blanket will be appreciated for years to come and maybe even passed down to a future generation. It was made with pride and the joy is in the making. It was given with love and the stitches will endure. From there, my job is done. Later that day, I was able to convince Chloe to pose for a picture with her Minnie blankie. Say cheese!
And after all is said and done, what's more fun, playing with all those shiny new toys or having fun in a sturdy cardboard box with little brother?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Craft vs. Fine Art: How is Crochet Blurring the Lines

I was awakening to the world of crochet in 1972,a time of immense artistic expression through fiber arts; and crochet was not the “ugly stepchild” at the time. In fact, Ferne Cone Gellar who I admire as a successful fiber artist said in “Knitting: The Stepchild of the Fiber Arts?” ( Fibercraft Newsletter 1978), “Has knitting been slighted among the areas of the fiber arts? The very word ‘knitting’ evokes images of the little old lady in tennis shoes. Over the years, I’ve learned to ignore all those jokes.” Cone Gellar went on to publish Crazy Crocheting in 1981 and encouraged her readers to create more than bedspreads, providing ideas such as “things to play with or to display on a shelf or hang on a wall.” A photo of single crochet from bread wrappers served as inspiration.  In 1972 in her book, Creating Art from Fibers & Fabrics , Dona Meilach wrote: “Why are fibers and fabrics becoming increasingly appealing to artists? Most artists agree

Wartime Crochet With Attitude, Part I

Wednesday, October 30, 2013 Karen Ballard and I have a mutual love of free form crochet. We met for the first time in a class taught by Prudence Mapstone of Australia at the Chain Link Crochet Conference 2011. I admire Karen's vast knowledge of needle work history and am grateful for her willingness to share with us as my guest blogger this week. Karen wearing a World War II-era knitting hat with stubby needles on top Karen's Heritage Heart,  with flowers symbolic of her heritage, is currently on tour with Prudence Mapstone's traveling "Hearts & Flowers Exhibition" in Australia and New Zealand   World War 1 Attitudes About Crochet by Karen Ballard In 2008, I coined that term, "Workbasket Campaigns" to describe the organized efforts during World War I (WWI) and World War II (WWII) coordinated through the American Red Cross {ARC} and the Navy League to create needle crafted items.  These items were mostly knitted but also sewn, qu

What is Free Form Crochet?

Monday, January 6, 2014 This topic came about from the title of my article recently in Fiber Art Now magazine.  "Crochet As Art: A Conversation with 5 Free-Form Crochet Artists." Yes, the 5 artists I wrote about, all of which are in  my book  The Fine Art of Crochet , are free-thinking when it comes to their creativity. They are free-wheeling with the hook and use unique fibers in many cases. Once you read the article, tell me what  you think? Are these artists doing free-form crochet? In order to define free-form crochet, we must look way, way back to it's origins: Irish crochet. A brief history of crochet, including the Irish method, written by Ruthie Marks is available through The Crochet Guild of America . Unfortunately, there are no images on the site. On her blog, Nancy Nehring has a beautiful montage of Irish Crochet in reference to a class she taught in 2013 at Lacis . I wrote an article in Old Time Crochet Magazine (Spring 1998), "History of Irish Croc