Designs by KN blog

This post is for Day 3 of

3KCBWDAY3

Assignment:  Your Knitting Or Crochet Hero Blog about someone in the fibre crafts who truly inspires you. There are not too many guidelines for this, it’s really about introducing your readers to someone who they might not know who is an inspiration to you. It might be a family member or friend, a specific designer or writer, indie dyer or another blogger.

If there’s such a thing as a craft-loving gene, I must have inherited it.  The love of creating with thread, fabric and yarn somehow made its way down the family tree.  Grandma S. raised ten children on a farm and with such a hard life did not have time or money for crafting other than basic necessities. I remember visiting once during a quilting bee (the best part for me was hiding under the quilt stand as the women stitched overhead!)  In later years, after we moved west to California, Grandma S. ventured far from her home in the midwest to pay us a visit.  While there, she knitted two pairs of slippers for my brother and me (turquoise/white and red/white double-stranded slippers in the vintage style with fluffy pompoms on top.)  Little did I know then that years later, when I began creating patterns of my own, I would be “hounded” for directions on how to make that style of slipper. Today My Grandmother’s Slippers pattern is one of the most popular in the Designs by KN line.  Thanks for the memories, Grandma S.!

Grandma H., on the other hand, was a crocheter.  An expert in thread, her home was positively dripping in crocheted tablecloths, antimacassars, pillows, table runners and doilies, two of which I inherited and still treasure today.  Grandma H. was exceedingly resourceful, not only wielding a steel crochet hook with skill but also baking fresh bread to sell to neighbors, tending to a kitchen garden, canning,  growing a grape arbor and caring for cages full of singing canaries!  It was her passion for crochet, though, that must have transferred to me, as that has been my preferred craft ever since I taught myself in college (a peek at my Ravelry designer page offers a glimpse of how a grandmother’s love for crochet has influenced her granddaughter.)  Thanks, Grandma H.!

Vintage Wheel Squares in thread

Crafting genes?  It must be true.  You see, neither of the grandmothers nor my mother, mother-in-law, aunts, neighbors, teachers or friends ever taught me how to crochet or knit! (well, someone did try to teach knitting but it didn’t sink in until years later).  I did take a sewing class in high school and made my own wardrobe then, but the crafts of knitting and crocheting were self-taught.  At one point my mom gave me a vintage needlework instruction booklet so I give credit to the classic “Coats & Clark Learn-How Book” for my yarncraft education.  Thanks, Mom, and thanks Coats & Clark!

To me, the needleworking heroes in my life will always be my maternal and paternal grandmothers.  I am in awe of the intricate pieces they created with the vintage tools and limited materials of their day.  Thank you, dear ones, for passing along the love-of-craft gene.  I intend to carry on the tradition as long as possible, and it does my heart good to know that my own daughter is carrying on as well in her chosen medium, cross-stitch.

We are grateful for the heritage.

Granddaughter and great-granddaughter in vintage thread dress crocheted by Grandma H.

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