Jimmy Burgess's Mother

So, I've been thinking about the knitting part of my life and thought I'd share a bit about it with you. When I was 10 years old, Jimmy Burgess (who was maybe 5 years old at the time) and his parents lived on the other side of the duplex (two family house, side by side) that our family owned. Mr. and Mrs. Burgess were from Scotland, and you had to really want to understand what they were saying -- their accents were that thick. Sometimes I spent time with Mrs. Burgess and Jimmy after school while Mr. Burgess was at work.

Mrs. Burgess was a knitter, and she taught me the knit stitch (not how to purl or cast on or bind off or increase or decrease or fix mistakes, just the knit stitch). She probably would have taught me all of those and then some, but we moved. I took my needles and ball of yarn with me but don't remember ever seeing them again.

I resumed knitting with Elizabeth Zimmermann during her PBS TV series when I was pregnant with my daughter, and I made many baby items for my daughter and then for my son. Once again, I didn't intentionally set it aside; it's not that I lost interest so much as my life filled up with other activities.You might have read about that phenomenon. Pretend there's a smile or wink emoticon here. ;)

Fast forward a few decades, and a friend I met online, Fran, sent me a photo of a little triangle neck scarf she had knitted. That was all I needed to see. Quick, easy, fun project with a cute result.

So my life in knitting resumed. Oh yes, I used those eyelash yarns, ladder yarns, even glow-in-the dark yarns to make little scarves for myself and everybody around me. Fun fun fun!

I tried fitted sweaters (cardigans and pullovers) but the results were not wearable. I might get back to that type of project some day. For the past few years, though, my knitting has consisted of cotton dishcloths, most of which I've sold and donated the proceeds to St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Center, a local pro-life ministry; gifts for new babies, family, and friends; and recently a scarf for myself.

Here are a few things I've knitted:

Dishcloths

Smaller dish cloths
And then some baby hats:

Trio of baby boy hats

Hats for twin girls

And an Easter basket of hats for preemie babies at Sisters of Charity Hospital (my Lenten knitting that year).

I'll show you more in the coming days. In the meantime, if you know Jimmy Burgess who lived on Fowler Avenue in Kenmore, NY, in the 1950s, let me know -- I'd love to reconnect with him and tell him about the difference that his mother made in my life.

Blessings and peace...