blanket memories

I am knitting a blanket for our bed. Our king-sized bed. I am using all the odd balls and left-overs of sock yarn I have accumulated over the years. I have over 2000 gms of these leftovers waiting to become a blanket of memories.

As I knit four-inch mitered squares I remember the socks or shawls I made with the yarn I am using. So many memories already and I am only 32 squares in on a blanket that will likely take about 1000. Socks I made for my sister to honour her love of elephants. Socks for my dear friend to commemorate her Camino adventure and her 50th birthday. Socks for my daughter to keep her feet warm on those cold maritime days and nights. Socks for my husband's hobbit feet (not hairy, just very, very wide). Socks for my son to wear as he tended his sheep and garden in the north. Socks for another dear friend who has known me for a long, long time. Socks for myself to remember my aunt who taught be how to knit. Those socks are the colour of her autumn flower garden. A shawl that I gifted to my aunt living far away. A shawl knit for a friend now living in Rwanda.

Currently I am knitting a square out of a tiny bit of blue yarn I have left over from a pair of socks I knit years ago. I knit them in my sister's little cabin and knit them in the company of a woman who was living with Alzheimer's. She didn't say much, but she did ask me about those socks. So this little square is a memory of her. And her partner of many years.

I am creating a blanket of memories as my aunt used to create quilts with pieces of fabric from dresses and aprons she had made for herself, her mother, her nieces. I used to love pointing to different pieces of fabric and asking her to tell me the story of that dress, that person. I imagine some time in the future I will be sitting with my children, maybe even my grandchildren, and telling stories about each square of this blanket.

It makes me happy to remember as I knit each little square. I imagine it will make me happy to wrap myself in those memories in the future.