It can be hard to find the right present for grandmothers, especially when they’ve told you that there really isn’t anything else they need and there really isn’t anything else they want. This year, my maternal grandmother, Lib, was particularly hard to “shop” for. Her eyesight is not very good, so she can’t read all the books that I know her retired librarian self would enjoy, and her memory is bad, she has Alzheimers, so I don’t want to get her anything confusing, and she has never really liked clothes and she feels like she has Enough.
But, she (just like my other grandmother) is very giving. In my head my grandmothers are like the two faces of charity–one giving locally, and fund-raising, and setting up organizations to continue helping people in the community into the future, the other giving internationally, thinking of herself as a citizen of the world. Lib is the latter of the two. When I was a girl, she always answered my letters on Unicef stationary, she had the AFSC calendar on her walls, and was the first person to tell me about Heifer, and that was ages ago. And also, Lib taught me how to knit, the first time when I was seven, the time it didn’t stick, but perhaps laid the foundation for my future success. (wink)
I decided to give to someone who gives by giving. I made the mittens above for Afghans for Afghans, and brought them to our Christmas celebration and shared then with my grandmother along with a letter of explanation and love. It’s a risky sort of gift—the person doesn’t actually get anything in the end, you could be misunderstood as being cheap, and it involves and awful lot of explanation—but, I think it was well-received. I hope that she got what was at the very bottom of it—that I love her and that the person she is has left a mark on me.
This is where I depart from the sentimental and give you the particulars on the mittens. They were made from this kool-aid dyed yarn using this mitten pattern. They were my first mittens ever, and there will probably be more, but not this year.
