Extreme Knitting Redhead: Blankieness

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Blankieness

The blankets made from the yarn used in my crochet chain from the London marathon are finished and will be with their new owners, to wrap them in love, very soon. As it was such a chunky and rather slippery yarn I decided to take a firm approach to the ends. I wove them in as I was crocheting but then I secured them with a few stitches for good measure.

This is the one I started on the morning of the London marathon and is for a man who is in the late stage of Alzheimer's and lives in a special care home. I will not give his details nor will I take photos of him with the blanket as that would be far too intrusive.

Taken in artificial light

This next one is for a lovely lady I visit who suffers from dementia. She lives at home with full-time carers. I lightened the colour of this one to keep it fresh and feminine.

Taken in daylight

I took them outside in the sunshine to try and show the colours better as they are really vivid.

Back inside again just to show their size together - about 4' square. For reference, the size of both the inner granny squares is 9" for the yellow one and 12" for the green one.

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.