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.