The 4 Year Blanket

Four years ago I started learning to crochet. I thought the bet approach would be to learn one of the stitches and then repeat it fifty million times to ensure I understood it, before moving on to learning the next stitch (I was wrong. So very wrong.) For my first project I decided to make a blanket for Gaia.

Gaia was four years old and had no interest in moving out of the big family bed into her own bed. I thought making her a single bed sized blanket might make the transition more appealing. She moved into her bunk bed three years before I finished her blanket, LOL. Gaia selected some balls of yarn and left the rest to me. I bought my first set of hooks, borrowed two 'how to crochet' books from the local library and set to work.

What I did not realise at the time was that there are two different crochet "languages". Stitches in American crochet have different names from stitches in British crochet. And this was how I invented an insane stitch that is something between a British single and American double stitch. This is partly why it took four years to finish Gaia's blanket. It didn't take long for me to master one stitch and move on to the next and before long I was working on a number of different projects and the blanket had become tedious. Then when I did return to the blanket, more experienced, I realised the stitch it was made from doesn't exist LOL. I had to figure out how to recreate the crazy stitch (or "Sazz stitch") or unravel months worth of work. I decided to forge on with the unique stitch...but now that I knew how to crochet, it was hard to make my hands and my brain do the wrong thing over and over.

As I neared the end of the project I realised that the edges were very uneven and hoped a border would make it look more respectable. The finished project is FAR from perfect, but it is filled with love and I'm rather proud that I kept at it despite the flaws and the years it took (and I'm impressed with my girl for maintaining her faith and enthusiasm for the project despite the long wait!).

The woman who started making this blanket was a mother of two in her 20s, she was addicted to soft drink and chocolate, working on a masters degree (which, unlike the blanket, did not have the good fortune to be completed) and she was working as a doula. She could not have imagined the woman who weaved in the ends of the lilac border. A woman in her 30s, mother of four, sugar free yoga enthusiast, and student midwife. I remember the period in my life when I took up crochet as being particularly tumultuous. I like to imagine I can reach back through time by stroking her hobbled stitches and reassure the lost young woman that she was on the right track. With each passing stitch she grew a little more self-accepting and wise. As the blanket grew, so did her family and her circle of friends. The blanket is full of history, as well as love.

I finished in the late hours of Saturday night, while on Face Time with a friend. In the time it took me to make this blanket my friend and I had been through many life-changing moments as well, including the birth of my third child, for which she was present. On Sunday Gaia came home from a morning swim and before I'd finished telling her what had happened while she was asleep the night before, she spied the folded fabric on my desk and guessed.
"YOU FINISHED MY BLANKET!" she squealed with such heartwarming delight.

Totally worth the wait

She is completely in love with her blanket. She loves the border most of all, she said "I thought you meant you were just going to do a boring line around the edge, not something flowery like this!" I'm relieved her taste in colours hasn't changed over the past four years ;)

Now the blanket has become part of Gaia's evening. When I told her I was feeling a bit lost now that this epic project was put to rest, Gaia replied:
"Time for Yemaya's."

Easter16

As a child Easter was a significant religious event in my life, but since my early 20s I have struggled to find meaning in this particular holiday. For a brief period I tried celebrating seasonal equinoxes and solstices, which meant celebrating Easter in October and Halloween in April, but I found going against the cultural grain too challenging to maintain my stamina. Instead, Easter has become a fun, but spiritually and seasonally meaningless celebration. As I grow older I care less about this, because I get so much pleasure from seeing the joy our eclectic Easter celebrations bring the children.

Each year since Gaia was three we have decorated eggs. Usually this involves hard boiling and then painting with food dye. We attempted a not entire successful (though, entirely fun!) drip method this year, as well as using paint brushes. In past years we've used felt, shaving cream with dye spots and simply dipping eggs in egg cups full of colouring. The kids look forward to this tradition. In related news: Frida's fingers are still green.

We use these colourful eggs for our hunts. We strayed from tradition this year by adding small chocolate eggs to the egg hunt. Well, you can imagine how fast the children ditched the hunt for the dyed eggs for chocolate! We also gave them the Lion King soundtrack to play while we're in the car.

This year we added two new traditions. After years of meaning to, but failing, we finally got around to crafting some Easter bonnets. They turned out absolutely adorable! Gaia kindly hand sewed the girls each a small felt bag to collect their tiny chocolate eggs in (pictured below).

The second new tradition was an afternoon of family atheletics. It started with an egg and spoon race which became a frog race, a regular race, stacks on and horsey rides on one another. Lots of infectious laughter. Our best Easter yet, and rather quiet at that.

Happy Easter from our little bunnies...and carrot.

Beach Therapy

We needed today quite badly. We have been having a challenging time this past...year, but especially the last six months. Today we managed to shake some of the stress, exhaustion, hurt & worry off with a day at the beach. For a really wonderful change, we had Ealesy with us on a Monday, so the whole family went to the beach, where we met up with a few other home ed families.

The six of us scaled the rocks and sand for every shell we could find (which will be used to fashion mermaid crowns in the near future). Watching Yemaya & Frida get lost in the task was especially wonderful. Children are so divine when they're deep in their private universe, focused and determine. It's a personal and very love-filled form of meditation to quietly stand by and watch them at the work. They somehow simultaneously bring you back down to earth while carrying you away to another world.  

In a rather epic role reversal: Yemaya didn't want to leave, and Gaia was the first to ask for home! This was a testament to how engrossing the sea shell collecting caper was to our dear May.

We inspected a rock face that was a little cave-like, strolled through rock pools and played on the sand with buckets, shovels & a ball. There were hand stands and laughter and lots of conversation. There was also a great mix of home schooled kids and parents of many ages (and they worry about socialisation!)

In addition to all the great folks at the beach, we also met this little fellow, who completely delighted the children:

 

'twas another #blessedasfuck day;)