the blanket lady

I absolutely love to make baby blankets. Knit. Crochet. Weaving. I don't care- I love baby blankets. Maybe it's because I love how quickly they go on bulky yarn, or how you can use as many bright or pastel colors as you want, but I love baby blankets. I still have the one given to me when I was a baby, and maybe I hope that someday there will be a child out there holding out of my blankets and saying that they've had this since the day they were born and have loved it forever.

And someday came a little faster than I thought it would. I've been making baby blankets and been giving them away or selling them (at a price barely above the cost of yarn) for a while and it really sunk in a couple weeks ago when at a baby shower (guess what I brought- A blanket!) a woman and brought her 9 year-old daughter up to meet me. Holding her girl's hand, she told her child, "this is the nice lady who made you your pink blanket".

My first thought was of course you have to say that, you can't exactly say "this is the cheap-ass hag that used acrylic". I smiled and said I was glad that she liked (and continued to like) her big pink blankie. It wasn't until a few days later when someone else was talking about a baby due soon when it occurred to me- I've become the blanket lady. And I've actually been the blanket lady for about 10 years. I thought there was a mistake when I was introduced to a 9 year-old who had one of my baby blankets, but that's about right. That girl had one of the very first baby blankets that I ever made, and she will always remember pink blankie. Maybe she'll even pass pink blankie down to her daughters.

And that's just one more reason why I'm proud to be a knitter. And I had the pleasure of going to visit the 4 day-old baby of some family friends today, and brought with me (of course) a blanket.

*burp rags made by my mother- between the two of us we've got the baby gifts covered.