Crafternoons with Meme

As an adult, I dream of having spare time for creating. I love all things arty and crafty.

My favourite problem is having too many hobbies and not enough hours in the day to enjoy them all. Once I slip into creative flow, I forget about eating, and most other responsibilities. I get captivated in the process of experimenting, exploring, making, and seeing progress.

I've been like that for as long as I can remember, right back to making art projects at home with my mum and being six years old spending time with my grandmother Meme. That's something my mum and Meme have always been supportive of, I was never the athlete, gymnast, or dancer.

As a way to keep me occupied during sleepovers, we would go to Spotlight and Lincraft stores, meticulously picking out our next projects - I would choose the latch hook, or longstitch picture I liked the most, and Meme would make it me, and teach me how to do whatever project we were making. I would watch for the first little bit before falling asleep in front of the fireplace watching tennis.

When I was 11 years old, we were sitting around the outdoor table in her courtyard.I had some pastel balls of wool, Meme found some old knitting needles in her mother Oumie's "magic" sewing box.(It was 3-layered, fold-out antique sewing box, and I was absolutely fascinated with it for all treasures it contained).

She knitted me a tiny knitted scarf, almost net-like, because the width of the knitting needles was so big, compared to the weight of the yarn.

It was then that fantastic world of knitting was opened up to me, and I immediately had to know what else we could make. I absolutely loved the simplicity of 2 sticks and a string creating so much.

It was during these times Meme told me about her family migrating from South Africa to Canada when she was a little girl. Oumie had taught Meme and her two sisters to knit while they were on the ship and they passed their time knitting pink and blue squares to make blankets.

Oumie was a crafting guru - sewing, knitting, crochet, tatting, embroidery, upholstery... You name it, she could do it, or could learn it easily. They learned what they could from her, and Oumie wanted to impart these skills onto my mum and her two sisters, but their interests lay in horse riding and sports.

I asked Meme if we could do the same with the pastel yarn I had, similar to the knitting they'd done on the ship. And so it began...

"In - Around - Through - and - Off"

Every weekend Meme would knit a square, I got to choose the colour and then we picked whether it would be knit, purl or ribbed texture.She taught me how to knit, but I had childish impatience because I couldn't knit quickly. I could watch Meme knitting for hours, excitedly watching the squares growing. We hadn't been diligent with stitch counting, so all of the "squares" were different sizes, shapes, and colours, but that didn't worry us.

The most satisfying part was the cast-off, Meme would let me hold the scissors and do the honours when it came to cutting the square free from the ball and adding the square to the ever-growing collection and dreaming of the day it would be a finished blanket. Meme always instructed me to leave a long tail, to help with joining the squares together at the end.

As I got older, and became wrapped up in school work and found new hobbies in art, my knitting fell by the wayside for almost 10 years. I'd moved house a few times but eventually I found my box of yarn.

My mother-in-law at the time, may she rest in peace, taught me how to knit again. But this time I learnt about purl stitches and she taught me how to read a pattern.

It reignited the memories of my childhood and I quickly embraced it again. Learning more than I had as a child.

Knitting cables, brocade, fisherman's knit, and bigger projects, like a patchwork blanket for a friend. I used to knit on the train going to and from work, and when I road-tripped around Australia with my ex-partner.

I was never without a project, a ball of yarn and a pair of scissors.

My Meme now has dementia and has very little memory, but for as long as I live, so too will those priceless memories we had together.

It might've been such a small activity as a way to keep me occupied at the time, but it was such precious times of grandmother-granddaughter bonding.

I still have those squares, and the balls of yarn. I'll keep knitting until I've finished the last ball, and then I'll lay them out and crochet them together. Maybe it will be another 20 years before I finish it, by which time I'll be teaching my daughter or granddaughter how to knit and we could finish the project together...