My Grandmother's Hooks

Almost 3 years ago, I lost my grandmother. I say I lost her, but the family lost her. I took her death hard. Harder than I thought I would. She’d been in a home for 2 years, suffering from complications of multiple strokes. It was heartbreaking.

After she passed away came the awful task of cleaning out her home. She had lived in that house my entire life. I have more memories in that house than any other house I have ever lived in or been to. It was as much my home as any other.

My father gave me her sewing machine, which is an amazing workhorse of a machine, in a sewing cabinet (or desk, whatever they are called). It needs repair work as it has been sitting unused for decades, and someday I will have it serviced and use it the way it deserves. But for now, it sits in my living room, holding my sewing stuff and reminding me of her daily. This is wonderful.

He also allowed me to take some crochet hooks I found tucked away in a dresser drawer. They too had been unused for decades. I had no idea how to use them, but I wanted something of hers I could put my hands on. Something I could use that I knew she had used. Something I could use to create. Here are her hooks and tape measure, still in perfect shape when I found them. 

As it happens, I was pregnant with twins and needed to spend as much time resting as possible. So this seemed as good a time as any to learn a relatively stationary hobby. I bought some books, some cheap cotton yarn, got on Mr. Google and decided to teach myself. Thank goodness for the Internet.

My first projects turned out ok; I made hats for my 4 kids, and then ventured out into things for my expected twins. Over time I grew more confident, and began to “wing it” for a lot of items using no pattern at all, or altering something I had found to make it fit my own needs. None of them were perfect, but these are the first items I made, the dresses came from my own pattern, or rather no pattern at all. Just making it up as I went along. 

I hope to continue to get better, and I hope to be able to continue to use her hooks as much as possible. I have added to them, adding sizes and even a Tunisian hook, but never replacing them. I can’t bring myself to do that. My Grandmothers hooks are just what I need right now.