Wrapped in Love

Few things in life can compare to the warmth and security of being wrapped in the arms of a loved one. Whether that’s a parent holding their child close, or feeling the embrace of your lover, there is something inherently calming in that moment.

My journey into crochet started as a child when I saw a pattern book for crochet outfits to make for your trolls (because of course every late 80’s/early 90’s child loved trolls!). My grandma showed me how to hold the hook and I tried for some time to get going, but I never quite got to the point of being able to do much more than some back and forth chains, so I put my hook aside and went onto other projects.

After I started working my first job out of college, I found that I needed something to do in the evenings on weekdays to relax and decompress after a long, stressful day at work. I began to go back through some of my former hobbies and I decided to try crochet again. I didn’t know what I was starting when I began my first real project, all I knew was that I should work on keeping even tension and figuring out how to count those darn stitches so that I could keep my pieces a uniform width. After a few questionable looking scarves and dishcloths, I started making plain squares. I didn’t know what exactly I would do with all of them when I finished making them, but I just kept going. It was a great way to start because I could finish up a square in a few evenings and then be done with it. If life got hectic, I could walk away for a few weeks or even months and then return to it when I was ready. It didn’t feel like I had an unfinished project in the closet that was begging for my attention.

Eventually, I had dozens of these squares and I finally had to sit down with them all and figure out what I was going to do with all of these one foot square pieces. I started organizing them into a pattern and decided on making a blanket. I needed just a few more skeins to finish out the color pattern that I was looking for and at that point I hit a snag. It had been so long since I had bought the yarn that the stores no longer carried it in those colors. I had to resort to online shopping and I soon found that the only place I could get it sold their yarn in three-skein bundles. So I bought more than I needed, and impulse bought other colors too because it was flat shipping, so why not? What had started off in my mind as a throw quickly morphed into an ever growing blanket that ended up being big enough to cover a king sized bed. The whole project made me laugh because I only had a twin bed when I first started making the blanket, then I upgraded to a queen sized bed midway through the project. It wasn’t until more than a decade later that I got a king sized bed and was delighted to find out that my blanket I had made so many years ago would actually fit perfectly onto the new bed.

After finding out I was pregnant with my daughter, visions of cute sweater, hat, and bootie sets danced through my mind. I adored going to the store to browse the pattern books and even bought a couple, but was never able to follow the patterns well enough to make a piece of clothing. My love for creating pieces with yarn kept drawing me into more projects and I did still want to challenge myself, even if I couldn’t make clothing very well. For my baby girl, I made her a round floor blanket to play on. The colors were simple and there weren’t any patterns or special stitches, but even eight years later I still find her using the blanket, bringing a smile to my face.

A few Christmas’s later, I decided to make my two children blankets of their own. They adored being able to wrap up in something special that mommy had made for them. Both of them got their own blanket that would be big enough for them to use for years to come and they both still cherish those blankets. When they get their special night to sleep in mommy’s room with her, the first thing they grab is their handmade blanket, and of course a plushie or two, or sometimes ten!

What I have really found rewarding and fulfilling during the process of making blankets is how much love goes into each one. When I’m making a blanket for someone I care about deeply, it’s as if I can feel the love flowing from my hands and into my work. I can see their faces in my mind as they take in their blanket for the first time. Especially when I’m missing them because they are not there with me, I find that working on their blanket brings me closer to them. After giving it to them, on those nights when they can’t sleep, they tell me that they wrap up in their special blanket and it’s like they can feel me there with them. Their special blanket makes them feel like they are wrapped up in my love.

Nothing in this world makes me happier than to see joy playing across the faces of the people I love. If I can provide that for them, just by the simple work of my hands, I feel like I have made a difference in their lives and have made them feel cherished.