Strong Family Women
Sunday, July 6th, 2003I’ve been contemplating my Great, Great Aunt Ingeborg lately. She’s the only relative I remember who knit, at least for me. She learned to knit in Norway, where she was born and raised. I believe she came to the USA when she was about 16, if I remember the story correctly. She always had a strong dialect, but we learned to understand her even as kids.
Ingeborg made a living as a baker for a Catholic hospital in Flint, Michigan. She was the only relative we had in Michigan, so she functioned a little bit as a third Grandmother (my “real” grandmothers lived in Minnesota while I was growing up).
I remember once we went to Ingeborg’s house for a holiday, perhaps Easter, and she had made apple dumplings. I was sure I would not like apple dumplings (we often had the dumplings that float on stew and I must have thought these the same). I was adamant I didn’t like it. My mother was mortified, as I was supposed to be a good grrrl (especially after Ingeborg had cooked all day for us) yet I often was not.
Mom finally insisted that I must at least taste the dumpling. And then I found I had been so wrong…. I LOVED apple dumplings. Hers were cored apples covered in pie crust and baked in the oven, with a cinnamon sauce. Now I always think of Ingeborg when I think apple dumplings. And I think of her when I see doilies on furniture, because she had them on her favorite rocking chair, the kind with arms carved to look like goose heads/necks. Now I realize she made those doilies. I wonder if they were knit or crocheted, I’ll never know.
This weekend I found a box of old toys from my childhood. It was not a particularly large box, but I found the one doll blanket I had remembered that Ingeborg knit for me. It was actually in pretty good repair (moths got one crocheted edge long ago but that looks repairable, see photo).
I also found a half dozen other handcrafted, knit or crocheted items in that one box. Funny how I tossed many things but not the handmade stuff. Even though my mother reallyreallyreally disliked wool (I’ve been busy convincing her to like superwash wool lately). Somehow I knew that handcrafted items were precious, wool or not. I will need to see if Mom can remember where the other knit/crocheted items came from. One baby cap (I used it for a doll) has a sewn in tag saying the first and last names of the woman who knit it, and I don’t recognize that name at all. It should be interesting to find out if I can find out the histories of more of the items.
I have to also show you the blanket sleeper I found, sized for my favorite doll. My mother made this, I assume freehand without a pattern, to somewhat echo my own blanket sleeper at the time.
Mine had a logo with a clown face on it, so Mom used the sewing machine freehand to embroider a clown face on the doll’s sleeper as well. Adorable. I had forgotten about this precious thing.
I’m so glad the moths did not find this box while I had forgotten it. The sleeper is in such good shape you would never know it was over 30 years old. You can see that Ingeborg’s blanket needs washing, but I dare not do that until I repair the crocheted edge. I’m delighted my precious items are still in decent shape.
Strong women in our lives, they are the stuff of stories. Stories worth telling.