Crochet Memories

[mattenylou]

I'm remembering the crocheted things we had around the house when i was growing up...

 

Every table and dresser always had a doily or runner, on Sunday, the dining room table had a beautiful tablecloth that my daughter still uses. I remember I had round doilies on my dresser, mom would dip them in starch and iron them so the big pink ruffle around the edge always stood up nicely.

 

I had a big bed doll, pink of course, that had a crocheted skirt large enough to hide my jammies underneath. Our pillowcases were all trimmed with crocheted edges, some made by our next door neighbor, some by my mother's grandmother.

 

I still have Mom's Grandmother's fine linen apron with inserts of crocheted lace panels. She died in 1939 at the age of 83, so I imagine this apron to be quite old. Her tiny little waist, judging by the total length of the entire apron with strings is hardly more than the length of my arm. It's quite long, probably reached down to her hemline going by our old photographs, all sewn by hand in teeny little stitches. I treasure it. (Grandma McMath came to the US in 1873, she had 8 children. during the flu epidemic in 1918, eight members of the family died within seven days in her home while she cared for them. She ended up raising 4 grandchildren that had lost their parents.)

 

I remember each shelf in our linen closet had a long strip of crocheted edging thumbtacked across the front. It was my job during Spring and Fall cleaning to carefully wash it, stretch it out, iron it, and tack it back... funny how I remember these things. Spring and Fall cleaning meant all the doilies and linens were washed and laid out on the grass in the sunshine to "bleach", then re-ironed and put away. Mom never let Clorox touch her linens, heaven forbid... I bleach everything, lol, no harm done, (yet)

 

We had one of those poodle-dog toilet paper covers for a short while...  I remember Dad thought it was the most ridiculous thing, so it didn't last too long..

 

What memories of crocheted things do you have?

[texas sunflower]

I remember the doilies on the backs of my grandmother's couches!  and tables, and dressers....

my mom wants me to make her some, but I cant get my fingers to work with the thread and small hook   

 

My other grandma (mom's mom)  had the barbies with the crochet dress, I think they were pillows, the dresses had lots of ruffles. 

Oh and she wore a big hat!  ha ha!!!  I played with it when we went to visit. 

 

That is so cool you have your grandmother's linen apron!!  and the memories!   

[mattenylou]

Texas Sunflower, sounds like you have some fun memories and I bet your Mom does, too, if she's wishing you'd make her a doily..

 

Oddly, i started working with thread instead of yarn when I got smacked in the face with "poverty" soon after my divorce 30 years ago. I lost my free pass to the local yarn store the day I went to court (it was worth it, lol) and after I used up all my stash I was pretty desperate as to what the heck I was going to do to support my yarn habit.

 

It was December, and one of my elderly neighbors was making crocheted snowflakes, she said she'd show me how, to just get a hook and a ball of thread... so I did... for only $2.00!!!

 

I made a zillion of them that month.., everyone got snowflakes and they loved them. Even this year, I had two people tell me they loved hanging those snowflakes on their tree all these years later.

 

You might want to pick up a ball of thread and a little hook, there's lots of nice patterns right here on the 'Ville's new free pattern section, I just added one yesterday,

 

....I bet your Mom would be so thrilled to get a little doily made by you for Mother's Day,,,,,

[katyallen815]

wow, what wonderful posts!

I remember my grandma making pretty doilys for us girls, and we would proudly display under neath our bed side table lamps. She also made rag rugs, with a big hook, and boxes of old clothes cut apart and make into strips  first, then crocheted in big ovals. When we girls were considered old enough, we got our own for our rooms, we cherished them.

 

She was the one that taught me to knit and sitting on her bed, making pot holders, was time well spent with her. Yep, the good old days.    thanks for this thread, both endearing and sad but well worth the trip down memory lane!

[tobybob]

My Grandma crocheted doilies and hotpads for each of her daughters and granddaughters. She crocheted slippers for all the grandkids that came over. She crocheted an afghan for each of her 7 kids. Grandma also crocheted over bottle caps and shaped them into grapes.

My other Grandma knit but when I visited her in Florida she had crocheted arm covers on her sofa. I did ask my Grandma if I bought the thread if she would crochet me a tablecloth. She said she wasn't able to has she hadn't been feeling well and wasn't even doing any crocheting. She always had a hook in her hand. But I did end up with two pineapple tablecloths. A very dear friend made me one for my birthday one year and I didn't know it was being made. I was at a craft show and there was a pineapple tablecloth for 50.00. I grabbed it. The ladies who sold it to me told me the lady who made it was in her 90's and would be disappointed she didn't get to meet me. I told them to tell her it was going to someone who appreciated all the work she put into it.

[mattenylou]

She was the one that taught me to knit and sitting on her bed, making pot holders, was time well spent with her. Yep, the good old days.    thanks for this thread, both endearing and sad but well worth the trip down memory lane!

 

Nice memories, sounds like your grandmother spent a lot of time with you, how nice that learned from her. Nice that you had your very own doily on your bedside table, that she made just for you gals. Do you still have any of the doilies or rugs that she made for you?

 

My Grandma crocheted doilies and hotpads for each of her daughters and granddaughters. She crocheted slippers for all the grandkids that came over. She crocheted an afghan for each of her 7 kids. Grandma also crocheted over bottle caps and shaped them into grapes.

My other Grandma knit but when I visited her in Florida she had crocheted arm covers on her sofa. I did ask my Grandma if I bought the thread if she would crochet me a tablecloth. She said she wasn't able to has she hadn't been feeling well and wasn't even doing any crocheting. She always had a hook in her hand.

 

How nice that you have crochet memories from both Grandmothers! An afghan for each of her 7 kids, wow, along with doilies and slippers, How nice! When your other Grandmother had to finally put down her hooks and needles because she wasn't feeling well, I'll sure that was a sad time for her, imagine how we would feel. I'm happy to hear you ended up with those special tablecloths. As a crocheter, you know just how much work is involved and appreciate each stitch. I'm so happy you made sure the elderly lady knew you appreciated the tablecloth she made, I'm sure you made her day!!

 

The grapes!!... I forgot all about the grape hotpads until you mentioned it. I think every family in our neighborhood had one of those hotpads, in every possible grape-like color there was. Maybe the ladies got together and made them.

[Mom2PBJ]

Yes, we had the doilies and my grandmother had afghans on her couch.  I have two of them.  She had made the most beautiful lace tablecloth for her big table that sat 10.  I wish I had that but I have no idea what happened to it. 

[pinkroses]

my grand mother made afghans ; doilies , rag rugs; those towels that hang on the fridge or stove

she made grannie square slippers.

she could read crochet patterns;  if she saw some of her sister's or family making something she liked

she would ask them to show her how to make it and then she would make them

she sewed , quilted. and hand embroideried .

[Elle]

It was my paternal grandmother who taught us all how to crochet.  She taught my mom and two of my aunts, one of my cousins and me.  A third aunt was forever destined to be a non-crocheter because the poor thing is left-handed and attempting to teach her how to crochet would have resulted in a murder-suicide. 

 

Granny would pick up a lot of her crochet patterns from the Bingo ladies and whatever she learned how to make was produced by the dozens, there was never one or two made of anything!  We saved bottle caps, we saved the plastic rings from soda and beer six-packs.  If it had a natural hole or you could poke a hole IN it, it got crocheted around.  My dad used to joke that if you had a beard and got too close to any of the women in the family you'd end up with a little afghan on your chin. 

 

I remember hot pads that looked like bunches of grapes, made by crocheting over bottlecaps with Knit-Cro-Sheen.  I remember Christmas wreath ornaments made by crocheting around the plastic rings that originally held together six-packs of soda or beer.  We had crocheted decorations for every holiday and every season with little strips of magnet on them stuck to our refrigerators.  We had crocheted Christmas stockings, tree skirts, candles (with empty toilet paper rolls inside), BIG candles (with empty paper towel rolls inside), Christmas carolers whose body was a styrofoam cone, a crocheted turkey centerpiece, ARMIES of clown finger puppets, and these finger puppets that consisted of a baby in the center whose arms and legs moved because that's where you put your fingers with a baby blanket around them so that it looked like they were all wrapped up.  These were actually a little disturbing when you studied them.  LOL!  We had poodles on the toilet tank and little dolls with giant skirts that also held spare rolls of toilet paper.

 

Granny was an old-fashioned housewife.  She had a part-time job working as a waitress at a restaurant that one of my uncles' mother-and-father-in-law owned and after she retired, she lived with my aunt and uncle and two cousins, surviving on a very small pension.  So money for gifts wasn't too plentiful for her.  She would work all year making our Christmas gifts, and whatever one got, we ALL got.  the men (her sons) would get boxes of candy and socks.  The women (my mother and aunts) would get kitchen towel rings and fridgies and other small ornaments, we girls would usually get a poncho.  We pretty much knew what we were going to get but it came from Granny and we loved it!  Just the fact that she made sure that everyone got a gift and she would work her fingers to the bone crocheting them all made them worth their weight in gold to us. 

 

The women in our family would use crochet as an excuse to get together, and we got together at LEAST once a week, some weeks more.  I remember my mom saying to my dad, "Johnnie, as soon as we get finished with dinner I want to ride down to see Zetta.  She learned a new stitch" or "we're meeting Bob and Zetta at Rose and Andy's so I can show them how to make the clowns."  Sometimes I'd crochet with them, sometimes I'd play with my cousins, but we LOVED getting together. 

 

Mom and Dad are both gone now, as is Uncle Andy.  I haven't seen Aunt Rose in about 20 years because she ended up gravitating toward her own family after Uncle Andy died.  Aunt Zetta and Uncle Bob live in Arkansas now, about 10 hours from me down here in S. Texas.  At the time, though, we all lived within 5 or 6 miles of each other in New Jersey.  I haven't seen my Aunt and Uncle in about 10 years but thanks to the Internet my aunt and I keep in touch at least once a week and we post together on a daily basis on a couple of crochet forums.  I keep trying to get her to join this one and hopefully one day she will.  I really wish we lived closer so that we could get together like we used to.   I was thinking about it the other day, and, at 55, I am the age my grandmother was when she first taught us all how to crochet.   Life is funny, innit?

[mattenylou]

Elle, your post made me smile... what wonderful memories you have. I hope your Aunt reads this, too. Maybe you should drop your Aunt Rose a note, too, I bet she'd get a thrill out of reading about your crochet memories.

 

Fun times!

[MamawNaNa]

My grandmother crocheted everything. her purses were made out of bleach bottle, cut into squares and crocheted together. I never saw her carry any other kind. She had crocheted dolls , afghans, you name it. She made sea shell dolls and then crocheted clothes for them. I remember her pineapple doilies and pineapple tablecloths. I can see her making so many beautiful things. She used the thread a lot, creating just beautiful shawls also. She was so talented. She tried very hard to teach children how to crochet. I wish she knew I finally am doing it...yes maybe I am 53, but I think she would be proud. oh...and I might add, she crocheted herself a bikini, it was in the 70's...and so was she!!! 

[curlysue]

Both my grandmas crocheted.  My maternal grandma taught me to crochet when I was about 10.  Her go to yarn was Aunt Lydia's (Heavy?) Rug Yarn.  Mine were always the arms that held the skein while she rolled it into a ball.    Such wonderful memories!

 

Over the years, I'll soon be 62, crochet has been a real comfort for me.  Such a blessing!