This purple gingham blanket is leaving the farm today for important work.
About a year ago, I was with a friend and her sister-in-law, who I hadn’t met before, for lunch. As we chatted, the subject of my daughter Hannah’s struggle with infertility came up. I told them that she was going on six years of trying but I knew it was going to work out someday because I was crocheting blankets preparing to be a grandma!
Then, her sister-in-law opened up and said she recently, after trying for ten years, was letting it go. She was over 40 and knew the chances were not great and she couldn’t go through the stress anymore. I said I would keep her in mind anyway, just in case. I told her my blankets were bringing some women success and you never know! She chuckled at the impossibility of it but agreed that nothing else worked, so she might as well let me crochet in faith.
Now, I understand that my blanket making could really just be a fluke or a great fantastic coincidence, but sometimes, a feeling burns in my heart about my little cause and I want to help in any way I can. So I went home and thought about her as I worked and made new blankets.
It was about this time that I really wanted to figure out how to create a gingham look with crochet. I’d only seen it done with granny squares, and I was wanting a way to simplify the process.
My first attempt was the corner to corner method and oh how the ends and the mistakes piled up! It was too hard to keep track of all the color changes as I worked diagonally up the blanket. It turned out beautiful but it wasn’t a blanket I wanted to ever make again.
Then I made a checkerboard blanket using a version of the tapestry crochet technique as a paid commission.
It wasn’t until one of my followers on Instagram showed me a blanket she made using the checkerboard technique but added a third color that I had my ah-hah moment and gingham was born.
I’ve since made several, using different stitches, colors and yarn types to try it all out because I love it soo much!
(Click on the image to see a post with all my gingham patterns.)
But this story gets better. Last spring my friend called me needing a blanket… for her sister- in-law! With no drugs, no medical intervention, no anything, she was having a baby and she wanted to give her one of my blankets. Absolutely I said! I was ready, I’d been crocheting with her in mind! My friend said she was having a girl and she really liked purple.
And wouldn’t you know, right then at that very moment, a purple gingham blanket was sitting in my lap, and I was finishing up the border.
So was it a fluke? Is there something to this? I choose to believe there is. Did my struggle to create gingham symbolize her much greater struggle of creating a baby? In my heart, when I think about it, a warm feeling spreads across me and I know that maybe these blankets are more. Maybe each little stitch I work is like a prayer being sent upward to help in some small way.
I guess the only thing I do know for sure, is that this blanket is going to be one of the first things wrapped around this little one to keep her warm, to welcome her into this big wide world, and let her feel secure. And I couldn’t be any more honored that a Daisy Farm blanket is being sent to do that job.
