Warming Grace

A week or two ago, I read about a project called "Warming Grace" over at Norma Knits. Cynthia of Two Wooden Sticks had the idea to knit a blanket for her niece, Grace, who is currently receiving treatment for cancer. So she put out a call for knitted squares. Now she has so many knitters interested that she has decided to piece together as many blankets as she can from the squares she receives and donate them to the Alberta Hospital pediatric oncology center.

When I first read about this project I felt compelled and scared at the same time. The cause was a good one, for sure, and Grace herself is the cutest little girl ever. I just didn’t know if I wanted to put myself out there like that. Agreeing to knit for someone else and having to conform to their time table. But, after going over to Cynthia’s blog and reading about the project I felt...I don’t know...compelled? Fired up? I’m not really sure how describe it but I felt like I had to do this. So I emailed Cynthia. And waited.

A couple days later (which felt like a really long time to me) she emailed me back and that same day I stopped off at the LYS and picked up a ball of Baby Ull in a medium pink (Grace’s favorite color) and a pair of size 3 straights. That night, I cast on. So far I’ve finished two squares (pitiful progress) and am more than halfway through with a third. My goal is to send off whatever I have finished this Friday, then more as I finish them. I’m still living with a certain amount of anxiety about all of this. Which seems silly to my logical brain, but perfectly reasonable to my emotional brain. Why all the anxiety? I’m afraid of being judged. What if my squares aren’t the right size? What if Cynthia (and of course I don’t know her at all, not even a little bit and so this is all about me) thinks my knitting is crap?

On the other side of the coin, as I’ve been knitting these squares I have this picture in my head of Grace (who I don’t know at all either, not even a little bit) looking at one of the squares that I knit and thinking that it’s pretty, or stroking it with her finger and liking the way the soft wool feels. These are the thoughts that motivate me to make more squares.

In spite of all my anxiety I feel empowered. It feels like a very powerful thing to effect someone else’s life in a positive way. And that’s as good a reason as any to get involved in any kind of compassionate volunteer work. So, if you feel so inclined, go over to Two Wooden Sticks and check out the Warming Grace guidelines, or check out any of the seemingly infinite numbers of worthwhile projects out there that need knitting or volunteers or money.