Jacqueline Rose

Awhile back I just HAD to make Jarod Flood's Hemlock Ring Blanket. Have you ever had that? Come across a pattern that was just itching to be knit? Well this was it for me. I had absolutely no idea what I was gonna do with it or what yarn I was gonna use. Not that I have a shortage of yarn. Trust me on this. Jarod's is knit in a wool but after stash diving, I was not willing to bust up some wool lots for this blanket that I had no idea what was to become of it. Eventually I decided upon some cotton. A chunky pink cotton that had been hibernating for some time and needed to see some action!



In no time at all 6 balls of yarn magically became a blanket. A rather small blanket at that. To say the least, I was feeling rather gyped. Definately not feeling the Jarod love at all. I mean, his pictures imply a blanket that one can snuggle under during a cold day. Yea, so maybe I didn't exactly use his yarn or make his gauge...(alright point taken) but still. Just sayin'. What in the hell am I gonna do with a rather large pink cotton doily?

Then my sister made the announcement that only a person with a rather large pink cotton doily wants to hear.

"I'm pregnant"

God almighty, let it be a girl, please let it be a girl....

"It's a girl"

One could have heard the sigh of relief from Tenbucktoo. At that moment, I knew exactly what was to become of my oversized baby pink cotton doily. It was destined to be Jacqueline Roses' blankie.

Betsy's Blanket

Back in October of 2010 I got a phone call that stopped me dead in my tracks. My good online friend Betsy had a massive stroke. How could this happen? She is in her 50's and much too young for this kind of trauma. I was stunned and wanted to help but I'm in Michigan and she is in Texas. There isn't much I'm gonna do up here but pray. And pray I did. Its embarrassing the amount of candles lit before the IOP (Infant of Prague) with novenas and litanies and short prayers for Betsy.

Then the knitter in me kicked into gear. I sent out feelers via Ravelry if anyone wanted to put together a blanket for our friend. The response was overwhelming and I found a way we could help from afar.



I chose a yarn I knew that Betsy would love in colors that were meaningful to her. Furthermore I instructed each knitter to knit a 12" x 12" square and get it to me by the specified date. This would give me time to sew it all together so Betsy would have it just in time for her rehabilitation and recovery time. Sounds easy enough in theory. But you know what they say about best laid plans!



When the squares started rolling in I was so incredibly excited. And then they kept coming and coming and coming. 25 in all plus the border edges. To put it mildly, I was getting overwhelmed. What did I sign up for? Sure, I've done blankets like this before but right before Christmas? OK, buck up Libby Grant, you can do this.



I decided to tackle this little by little and sew up the squares 30 minutes at a time. Picture this. I have all of the squares laid out on the basement floor. Me on my belly lying on top of the blanket sewing away with 2 kids thinking we are gonna play horsey. Yep the kids were climbing all over me while I was sewing away. So I was only able to get a couple of 5 foot lengths sewn together at any one given time. And there were 8 of them to do for the inside squares and another 4 to do for the borders.



Eventually they were all sewn together and then came the border strips. At this point I was getting excited and could actually visualize the finished project! Then came the final touches when I mitered the corners and wove in all the edges.



Then I just looked at it in amazement because 29 women got together to make a blanket for our friend. It truly is a work of art.