Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Memories of the Knitting Nazi

    You all remember my beloved maternal grandmother, the one I refer to as the Knitting Nazi. There are so many memories of her in my life. She would come for a visit for two weeks and stay two months. She drove my mom crazy with her digs at my dad.


    One of my favorite stories, and I actually witnessed this, is the time she was laying on the couch in her nightie and robe, covered by an afghan. Her hair was a mess, and she was complaining that she wasn't feeling well at all. My dad needed to go out for something. He stood at the door and jingled his car keys. Grandma sat up, bolted off that couch, and in less than five minutes was at his side, fully dressed with her hair brushed, face made up, and her purse on her arm asking "Where are we going?"! 


    When she couldn't take care of herself any more, my mom and her sister decided to move her to a nursing home in Florida, near my aunt. She would look after her and make sure she was OK. That left us to pack up her belongings in her little apartment in upstate NY. One weekend my mother-in-law and I went up, to go through what was left and see if there was anything I wanted.


    Apparently, my aunt told grandma about this. I heard from my mom that she was telling people that I had gone to her place and stolen her things. It makes me sad to think she thought that of me. She had dementia by that time, and wasn't all there. But it still made me sad.  


    Anyway, she passed away a while ago. I recently went through a bag of her stuff that was in my closet. I found a box of embroidery thread and notions. In there was a tiny pair of scissors. They are really good scissors. I've had them next to my bed since then. Yesterday I decided to put them to good use. I remembered that she used to have them on a chain stitch necklace around her neck. She said, that way you always know where they are and don't have to go searching for them.


    So, I crocheted a long chain and put the scissors on it. Now I have a scissors necklace too. It's in my notions bag with all the other things that crafters need like stitchmarkers, little crochet hooks, yarn needle, and a small tape measure.

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