I crochet. I also knit. It is something I enjoy, though not something I do very often as of lately. I’ll get back to it, but it takes time. Sitting time. Time with out having to get up and make sure the leaf the baby found isn’t actually a dead bug of some sort.
I don’t have that kind of time often right now.
But I know the feeling. The feeling of spending hours on end making something with your own two hands. It’s a great feeling. I highly recommend it. Knowing this feeling thought means I can appreciate seeing other peoples’ work and honestly appreciate the amount of time and effort that went into something. Which is why when I see an abandonded blanket/afghan/lap covering… I honestly can’t say no.
Well… I could if it was expensive. But when it is highly affordable that sucker is coming home with me. Like these guys:
I imagine a grandma diligently working on the left hand one… probably in the 70′s. It is zig-zagged and mimics the rug, but has red with totally ties into my red shelves. The one on the right… another grandma spent a long time crochetting those tiny tiny little stitches for a new grandbaby. The zig-zags were $7.00, the baby blanket was 99 cents.
And this pretty little purple number? It’s in the living room now. It’s very happy there. I paid $3.00 for it!
And of course… my biggest (and most expensive) blanket that I bought in Maine, was not used, rather… brand new, and the smile on the woman’s face when I feel in love with it is one of its best features!
I love that these things have a story – even if I don’t know the story, or if it’s just a grandma passing the time while she sits at a flew market. Women (presumably) spent hours of their lives making these blankets as they watched the world go by in front of their eyes. I wonder what they saw, what memories they attached to these items. I’ll never know – but I will always appreciate them.
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Is there something you can’t say “no” to? I have a thing for books and blankets, clearly. 
