My Grandma crocheted her entire life.  But for the decades of crochet that my Grandma did, the only thing I ever knew her to make was Granny Squares.  There are three things she liked to do, crochet, garden, and paint the house.  In the summer time she would be out in her garden all day with her flowers.  Every night she’d crochet it front of the TV.  And once a year she’d paint the inside of the house.  After over 50 years in the same  house we used to joke that the rooms were getting smaller from all the layers of paint on the walls.

I do share my Grandma’s love of crochet and gardening.  Although I will admit that I’m not a fan of making granny squares.  You need to have a consistent gauge, perhaps I do now, but when I was younger, I did not, so I didn’t like to make them.  My squares never seemed to come out the same size.

I think just about everyone in the family has at least one granny square afghan from Grandma.  I was in my closet the other day and pulled out three of them.  The first one I remember my Grandma making for me.  I was in middle school or high school at the time and she made it in colors to match my room, blue/green/purple.  To tell you the truth, I don’t specifically remember getting the other two.

Grandma didn’t care about fancy yarns.  In fact most of her yarn came from the dollar store.  Or she’d buy yarn in the big Pound of yarn skeins.  She was a child of the Great Depression, so she did not waste money or spend money on luxuries.  If she knew how much I spend on yarn, she might faint.

After everyone in the family, and just about everyone she knew had plenty of afghans, Grandma started making them for the troops.  She would make red, white, and blue Granny Squares and mail them off to soldiers and veterans.  This woman was so patriotic, that if she saw a flag frayed at a store, she’d complain to the management.  In fact, one time there was a car dealership that had a large American flag.  The ends of the flag were getting frayed and torn.  She told the management at the dealership that they should replace the flag, but they didn’t, so she wrote a letter to the car company.  The flag was then replaced.

Grandma passed away about 6 years ago now.  She was an amazing woman.  I’m so thankful that I still have some of her art to remember her by.