Terri’s book came!
Saturday April 21st 2007, 10:37 am
Filed under: Friends,Knit


Years ago, I used to trade off babysitting with another mom every weekday morning; she would go work out, and I would go do swim therapy. She had three preschoolers, including an adorable little baby girl that I used to sing “Love you forever” to–the refrain, set to a tune, from a children’s book I’d come across but had never gotten around to buying a copy of. My kids were just a bit past the age for it when I discovered it, cute though it was.

Terri Shea knew none of that. She just happened to come across this adorable little children’s book, “Love You Forever,” and on impulse bought a copy and mailed it to me just because. It was not terribly long after that friend had moved across the country, where I wouldn’t get to see her kids growing up anymore. But no matter the time and the distance, I will love them all forever.

Terri didn’t know I about burst into tears when I saw what was in that totally unexpected envelope. Wow. How did she know… The answer, of course, was, she didn’t. She just thought it was cool. It was. And how!

This book is the one that Terri just finished writing and self-publishing. I think if I had found it before I found Kaffe Fassett, my love for fair isle might have drowned out the ambition to learn intarsia: the focus in this is mittens, but you can take the patterns and apply them to anything you want. This book is a work of love and art (insert subliminal message: buythisbookbuythisbookbuythisbook). She’s over at spinningwheel.net . Go ahead. I’ll wait.


5 Comments so far
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What a nice post. Its the unexpected things in life that really make it that much more wonderful.

Comment by Amanda1 04.21.07 @ 7:23 pm

Yeah. Terri’s the best, isn’t she? And it’s a great book!

Comment by Romi 04.21.07 @ 7:33 pm

Ok, now let me tell the *rest* of the story.

Back in the late 1990’s, when the big knitlist was a warm friendly place to be, this new knitter learned oh so much from a particularly helpful and patient Ms. Alison aka spindyeknit. Alison was always patient, answered every question that needed answering with thoughful, detailed explanations. She never made snarky comments, never made anyone feel stupid for wanting to know how many stitches to cast on for that first garter stitch scarf. The woman is a saint.

One day Alison made a nostalgic but not maudlin comment about how fast the children grow up. I had just received “Love you forever” from my MIL, and since I’d read it just the night before (and I made up my own little song, too), so without telling why, I asked Alison for her address. I could only find a soft cover copy of the book, but it would have to do. I tied it with a little scrap of yarn and sent it on. Of course, I had no idea this book had been a favorite. I just knew, being a mom myself, that she needed a little reminder, that her babies will always be her babies no matter how big or how far away.

The knitlist got too big for me, and the admins got too restrictive. I dropped the list but never forgot Alison. She had become my Secret Audience, the knitter I wrote my patterns for. I remember once Alison said how her accident had left her brain injured in such a way that she couldn’t decode knitting charts, and could only use written out instructions. From that day I have written my patterns to include both charts and written instructions, so that everyone could use them.

It was pure luck (there it is again) that I learned that Alison was good friend of another list friend, one of those six-degrees things, and when I found her blog I posted immediately. And I was so surprised and delighted that Alison remembered me.

I can’t wait to buy your book, Alison, and I hope you enjoy mine. You are an unspoken inspiration.

Comment by terri 04.22.07 @ 12:19 pm

I love your book, Terri! It’s absolutely beautiful. And I want you to know that that “Love You Forever” copy has been proudly kept on the shelf with my knitting books ever since I got it; that feels like just the right context for it. And thank you very much for the kind words; much appreciated.

One clarification, not that it’s necessary, is that the brain scrambling that made it a chore to recognize some visual cues happened as an early complication of my lupus. The car accident in ’00 just kind of piled onto that later. There was awhile there, 17 years ago, where I couldn’t look up phone numbers, because I couldn’t remember them from the page to the phone, no matter how many times I tried. I’ve come a long way forward since then. (I’m writing this partly as an apology to every person whose face I should have recognized at some point in my life since then and didn’t, because memory for faces that I don’t see often was hit fairly hard by that.)

Comment by AlisonH 04.22.07 @ 2:09 pm

A few years ago my daughter (Age 20 at the time) – gave me a new copy of “Love you forever” – it was my kids most favorite book and somehow had gotten lost over the years. It’s now next to my bed and it reminds me how lucky I’ve been!
Knit on!

Comment by JulieLoves2Knit 04.30.07 @ 10:06 am



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