Making Beauty Out of Pain

I received my Three Irish Girls "You Are My Sunshine" this week and I am in love. So in love, in fact, that I started AND finished a pair of socks and have been wearing them the past couple of days. As I finished up a few other projects this week, I realized that there was a theme.  I realized how yarn and beauty and pain inspire some pretty amazing things.

I love being able to turn this, a yarn inspired by pain....

Into this...

 

My Harvest Dew Socks. (Which IS a free Ravelry Pattern, by the way).

I love that what began as an idea to help support those suffering from the grief that comes with losing a child, became yarn with a meaning. I love that the yarn became a project that I can wear and remember and smile.

I love that this Madelinetosh Vintage yarn in the Terrarium colorway:

  

became these:  

A pair of gloves, knit with love for the friend of a friend who had to have her finger amputated. I love that the idea to make something special for someone who had suffered a physical loss could become a gift that was inspired AND inspirING. As I knit each stitch I thought and prayed for the young girl who would be wearing these gloves. 

And finally, this.

This is a gift that has been the labor of love of many many people. There are 30 squares in this blanket, made from the Barn Raising Quilt pattern. Each square was knit by people with varying degrees of knitting skill out of different yarns, but an equal amount of love for our friend, Jodi, who delivered and lost not one, but two babies this past year. Nina, feeling her own losses as she cried with Jodi over hers, felt that a quilt needed to be made so that Jodi could wrap herself in it and know that she is loved, so I found a pattern, dug out my own scraps, asked for people in our own group to dig out theirs and asked for some on Ravelry (and had two people who have never met Jodi pass along some yarn to add to the blanket.) And we started to knit. As I knit 8 of the squares, I thought about my own losses. I thought about the pain, the healing, the joy, the hope. . .and I prayed for Jodi through each of those things. Sarah knit 7 of them, and as she has suffered her own losses, I know that she put a lot of thought into her squares. We got together to weave in ends (our LEAST favorite job!) and when it was finished and as I looked at the pile of ends I realized how true it was that we were given the chance to weave beauty out of pain. Kirsten made 4 squares and took the task of sewing them all together. She took each of our contributions and made it into something cohesive and beautiful. Many other people contributed in big ways. Kelsie made 2 squares and used her crocheting expertise to finish the edging. Jamie and Linda, both new knitters, confronted the task head on and made not only one square, but two. . . Kristen, Molly, Shannon, Serena, and Anna each contributed a square, and we couldn't have finished without each of their fun, bright and beautiful pieces.

So remember how I said we made beauty out of pain? I think these are the perfect examples of how that can work. By a small business making a yarn and contributing in big ways to help those experiencing losses. By a friend dreaming up an idea and figuring out how to get it done. By a group of people, drawn together by knitting, taking their time and their skills to create love for a friend.