Kaleidoscope Tarot: What's in a blanket?

Saturday, 9 February 2019

What's in a blanket?

What's in a blanket? Yarn of course - or is that really all?

For me there is so much more. There's hopes and dreams, prayers and wishes, heartache and joy, searching and reconciling, stillness and meditation - but most of all there's MAGIC.

Photo © Karen Wiederhold

The desire to gather together a huge pile of yarn and get out my hook is one of the things that runs through my veins and makes me who I am. I've always been a worker of yarn, it's in my blood and in my genes. My family tree is full of spinners and weavers from the Scottish Highlands and in later generations the tree became populated with tailors, cobblers and seamstresses. My little leaf on the family tree adds published yarn craft designer to the line - although i'll probably be better remembered by those who follow, for wrapping most members of the family in yarn in some form or another.

I began work on this beautiful pattern, the details of which i'll share at the end of this post should you want to make your own. It occurred to me as I pulled out the first ball of yarn that 2018 had been a relatively dry year creatively in comparison to all the years before. Even thought i'd been colouring and knitting a few things it was not on the scale which was usual for me, as evidenced when I looked through my journal and noticed the imbalance between creative time and things like screen time and social media. But that's a post for another day. The start of 2019 had found me restless and frustrated - some things in the wider community were just not sitting right for me. I was beginning to feel the need to have a place of stillness to settle into which would reveal what it was that I needed to know or understand and to receive clarity on how to make changes.

It had been ages since i'd worked on a blanket of this size and heavens how i'd missed it and heavens how wonderful it felt to be at the start of one again! Yarn crafters will know the giddiness of ordering yarn, waiting for it to arrive and the absolute delight of squeezing it and oohing and oohing over it when it does.

Photo © Karen Wiederhold

While working with yarn, there is a stillness that descends with the rhythm and gentle movements of each stitch. A sanctuary space begins to open and thoughts of family and friends draws them near and it seems as though they sit and stay a while. This is where I hold space for myself and for them. Each stitch and round of the blanket is woven with thoughts of hopes and dreams, heartache and worries, loss and achievement, tears and laughter for meditation and stillness in sending prayers and healing. Each moment gathers here, together, acknowledged and not alone. This blanket will provide warmth and comfort, it will accompany us as we enjoy picnics and journeys.

Those moments of holding space during the time spent working on it will keep the memories of the people who fill it alive.
This is where MAGIC is for me. 💜