Monday 28 January 2013

"I am not sure you will remember me.."

the voice at the other end says hesitantly, "but I won the blanket you made."
"The blanket?"
I have made more than one blanket. I have put together more blanket squares than I care to think about. 
But this is not the blanket she is talking about, She is talking about the "Peace Blanket" - the small blanket I made in one piece. It had the word for 'peace' in twenty different languages with rows of the Blissymbol for peace in between. (If you Google "Peace Blanket"  you can find the pattern on the internet - and a picture and link under "patterns" in Ravelry.)
But, to get back to the story, the owner was asking me whether I would like to have it back - to pass on to someone else.
          "I have had it and loved it for more than ten years. I have used it in schools and in other places to tell people how it was made and what it means. Now I am retiring and moving to a much smaller place. There will be no room to hang it and I would rather someone used it."
I do not feel insulted by her inquiry in the least. I think I feel honoured that she thinks do much of it that she wants it to go on being used.
I have said she can return it to me. I do not know what sort of condition it is in but I think she must have taken good care of it or she would not want me to see it again or suggest that it could be used in other places.
But I also wonder now... what has happened to the other people who helped me make the blanket? What has happened to the people who added stitches? There were all sorts of people in all sorts of places. I travelled all over the city knitting it on public transport. I worked on it during a big craft fair where there were people from all over Australia and even from overseas. Some of them were very old and are almost certainly no longer alive. Others were very young and will now be in their teens.
It would be interesting to know.
Do any of them remember adding a stitch to the Peace Blanket?

No comments: