Steps Away

I have been knitting Rhea a blanket this summer. It is getting rather large and heavy at this point and I feel like the knitting is getting slower not to mention warmer.

The end of this project signifies Rhea's first steps away from her birth family. Her first step into her next phase of life. Her first big step towards independence. Steps...

I grudgingly knit on.

I want her to grow and be independent but I want her to stay my baby. Maybe if I never finish the blanket she will never leave.

I knit on.

That is what parents do. Despite every cell in our beings needing to protect and to keep our children close we let them push away. We let them declare that they are completed. We let them set the time when we need to cast off and enjoy the end result.

Rhea picked the colours and I picked the design. I am calling Loyalist Log Cabin blanket since she is going to Loyalist and the design is based on the log cabin quilting design. Built into the design are steps and home and comfort. And...washability...yes..knit in Mission Falls MACHINE WASHABLE wool. She may not choose to clean it but she will not destroy it if she does.

With the gift of this blanket I will be sending love and security with her. Even a 19 year old needs comforting from time to time. I hope that the blanket gives it to her in a pinch.




Do you think I could get her to knit me one?

Street Watching

One of my shop down time activities is watching the homeless and psych patients out on a day pass walk up and down the street.
To those driving through town they seem like your everyday garden variety people. When one sits in one place for a while and one sees who is not just passing through.
I am 2 doors north of a Coffee Time and I now know how many times most of them pop in for a chat, coffee or a cool down.
This summer I have figured out who does not have air conditioning at their house. I see them trudging down the street clothing akimbo, sweating buckets. Then again, cooled down, in better spirits walking back home.
Then there is the Scooter brigade. For some reason mostly older ladies (I say older but they could be my age) zipping between the subsidized apartment block and the Coffee Time or the corner store. Yes there are men on scooters too but they do not travel in groups like the women do. I wonder why?

From the same high rise comes the woman who does not have a motorized chair and huffs and puffs her way up the hill at lease 2 times a day to get a coffee and donut....She works so hard...and compared to the scooter people must be in excellent shape. When I first saw her 3 years ago I really wanted to go out and give her a push but now I know that the trek is part of her routine and she doesn't want help.
Occasionally one of the ambulatory street people pop in to see what I'm all about. Some to chat very occasionally. None are scary... lonely and occasionally smelly but not scary.

I long to ask about their lives and discover their inner thoughts.

But I let them keep their inner workings private as they let me do so too.