| Thursday, December 29, 2005 |
| Post-Christmas Shawl |
This is my Oma. She's the greatest EVER. She tells me all kinds of stories that are at once fascinating and heartbreaking about what it is was like to grow up in Germany, through economic crisis and enormous civil unrest after the first world war, to the nightmare of the second, to the struggle for survival that followed, and of a life married to a man amputated during the war, both physically and emotionally.
Her two children live in Canada (my dad) and in Spain. Although they have built thier lives so far away, they both visit whenever time and money allow, and call frequently, to keep her company as best they can in the years since my grandfather died. One of the reasons I decided to study in Germany was that I would be able to visit her more often, and get to know her better. It's terrible that for most of my life not only was I so far away from her, but couldn't even speak to her properly, since she only knows what little english she remembers from school, and I wasn't able to speak German until I got to university.
She can hardly believe I'm so nuts about her. I only got to visit a few times when I was younger, and since I've been in Germany she's been in pretty rough shape. She can't do most things anymore, and spends most of her time sitting because walking is difficult. I can't be with her as often as I'd like, but to help give her a warm hug now and then, when I can't do it in person, I started knitting a shawl for her. I though of it a bit late, so it wasn't done for christmas, but it has christmasy colours. It's got 2 yarns, one is a blend I bought on ebay a while back, with brown, reds, and a metallic copper thread that makes it a touch glitzy, but in a nice way. It only sparkles a little among the other threads. It knits up nice n chunky, but I soon realized that it wouldn't be enough for a whole shawl, so I blended my own mix out of a few thinner yarns to supplement. A cranberry coloured cotton with 2 threads each of laceweight brown and burnt orange wool. It knits up to about the same thickness as the other yarn, and has a similar colour scheme, only with a red background instead of brown. I hope my Oma likes it, and I hope I have the time to get it done soon!
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posted by tatjana @ 6:47 p.m.   |
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| 2 Comments: |
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Your grandma is beautiful! She's lucky to have such a caring grandaughter! The shawl is really pretty - I can't wait to see picutres of her wearing it!
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I finished Ginny's Shawl! Please come see!!
And HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
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Your grandma is beautiful! She's lucky to have such a caring grandaughter! The shawl is really pretty - I can't wait to see picutres of her wearing it!
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