by N Zinser

Created on: May 14, 2009

Knitting has been a big part of my family, for many years. My father's mother, whom we called Ducky (Ducky never wanted to be known as Grandma!) was an avid knitter her whole life. She made everything: afghans, sweaters, hats. Her afghans were famous in our family, and we all had them. My grandfather would help her with the afghans - he always made the fringe. When I was younger, she often tried to teach me, but it never took hold with me as it did with my older sister. My sister was her only knitting convert, my other siblings and myself were hopeless. I often observed them knitting together, and having deep discussions about things I knew nothing of such as cables, or picking up dropped stitches. I was interested in the end result of their endeavors, but never in the process.

About 8 years ago, I took a halfhearted interest in learning to knit. Ducky and my sister were thrilled. I got myself couple of balls of Wool-Ease Chunky, giant needles, and made myself a garter stitch blanket (my short attention span only allowed me to learn the knit stitch at the time). I knitted that red blanket forever. I found it to be boring, without realizing that there was much more to knitting than garter stitch. When reaching the end of my last ball of red yarn, I realized I didn't know how to finish, and I promptly packed away my sad attempt at a blanket. That was the end of my knitting career, or so I thought.

In the beginning of 2006, Ducky's cancer returned, and metastasized. Ducky had breast cancer years before I was born, and had been in remission my whole life. As we went through the process of getting home care, going to the hospital, then finally hospice with her, we were introduced to the Prayer Shawl Ministry. There seemed to be no comfort in the endless time we spent at her bedside, not knowing what was going to happen, or when, or what to say to her to help in any way. When we were at the hospital, one of the nurses gave us a prayer shawl, and explained the ministry a bit to us. I was intrigued a knitting hobby being used in this way. My whole family loved the shawl, and everyone used it at different points during Ducky's stay. When she was moved to the hospice, the nurse urged us to keep the shawl. It was nice to keep it with us, and I decided that I was finally ready to start knitting again. I wanted to make a prayer shawl for someone else who needed it. It brought us comfort at a time of intense pain, and I wanted to reach out to someone who was going through that pain.

She died in June of 2006, and I started knitting. I began with a prayer shawl, and then slowly learned more stitches, and patterns, and the whole world of knitting opened up to me. Knitting has become a huge part of my life since her death. I regret that I never took it up with the passion I have for it now while she was still here, but I know she would be glad to know that sooner or later, her love of knitting passed on to me.

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