A Tale of Two Blankets

Sometime last summer I bought two old vintage crocheted blankets from the Missionary Mart. I love mooching round this place which is full of Narnia wardrobes, abandoned tables, crockery and the general stuff that people don't want any more. It is fabulous.

Ugly Blanket

Anyway, one blanket was nice and one was, quite frankly, ugly. Both were big granny squares but one was made of scraps and recycled yarn, put together in a haphazard way. It was hideous and I eventually decided to recycle it into a nicer blanket.

My maternal grandmother grew up and raised a family in the aftermath of two world wars. She was therefore the epitome of Make Do And Mend, having struggled with rationing and shortages. she lived with us when we were growing up and I remember many occasions where old knitted jumpers were unravelled ready for the yarn to be used in something new. Thus is was with lots of memories that I unravelled this blanket.

First the yarn was wound into skeins round two legs of an upturned chair. One of my jobs as a child was to sit with my arms held out having yarn wound round them for however long it took - if I was unavailable, that's where the chair came in. 

The next stage would probably fail many health and safety regulations as it involved holding the skeins of kinked yarn over a boiling kettle. The steam worked its magic and the skeins would grow in length as the kinks dropped out. 

Kinky

Not so kinky

Finally, the skeins were wound into balls, a skill I haven't lost, and they were put into the big oak blanket box in gran's room. I wonder how many things my jumpers had been before being made into something for me?

So, the blanket. I followed all the steps, although I  may have to enlist BabyDragon's arms to make the endeavour truly authentic, and have begun the task of sorting the skeins of yarn into colours. Hopefully, with a more coherent design, it will look less hideous yet remain true to its roots as a blanket made of scraps. Two squares are done and, as my ripple blanket becomes too bulky to take out to places, it will become my "time filling" project.

This blanket will be the one the SmallDragons are allowed to touch and spill things on. I hope it will help to instil in them an ethos of reusing and recycling rather than the more usual disposable attitude.