collage of photos thankful

Granny is the queen of crochet. She crocheted things when I was little, but in those days she sewed a lot too. In the last 20 years Granny has crocheted pretty much every day. To quote her “I just love it!”

After Pap passed away Granny told me she didn’t know what she’d do if she couldn’t crochet to give her mind something to study on.

When I was really little I sort of wanted to learn to crochet but never did. Once I was an adult Granny begged me to learn but I was too busy with twin girls and gardening to worry about learning to crochet.

Thankfully both Chatter and Chitter learned to crochet from Granny.

These day’s Chatter is the one you see with needles most often. Even though Chitter doesn’t make as many things as her sister I’m glad she has the skill if she ever decides she needs to make something.

crocheted hats

Today’s Thankful November giveaway is two children’s hats crocheted by Chitter.

Leave a comment on this post to be entered in the giveaway. *Giveaway ends November 8, 2020.

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27 Comments

  1. Good morning My Mom said ” Betty Ann, where are your shoes”? I don’t know… Mom would have all of my sisters, as well as our neighborhood friends, looking everywhere for my lost shoes! Off they went coming home from school, and church! I mowed the lawn barefoot, and played softball with the gang barefooted. Always was stung by yella jacks and swelled up bad! Mom went to the hospital to bring my brother into the world, so my aunt was staying with us. I cried when she took us for swimming lessons. I told her I couldn’t go and showed her 2 swollen feet. She stuffed them into my flip flops and told me to try walking normal, they
    ( instructor) wouldn’t see them under water! Ouch! I swam like a fish with never touching the bottom for a half hour! Many a bruised foot had I,and stove up toes, but never abscessed, thankfully! We didn’t have cow patties and frogs in abundance anywhere! Never know, you may need that stuff one day

  2. I wish I lived close to learn from your Mother. My own sweet Mother cooked, cleaned, made most of our clothes AND made a living for us at the same time. She never learned to knit or crochet. Since this pandemic started up, thanks to YouTube videos, I have learned/taught myself to crochet and just started knitting. I like the crocheting better. Being the recipient of the cap would be nice, but instructions for making one would be nice too. I love that your girls have learned from their Granny!

  3. I admire the things people can crochet but I’ve never learned how to. I make it a point to try to stay as warm as I can in cold weather. My Mama always liked for us to wear a warm hat, gloves, and socks in the Winter time. Now that I am older I just about have to have on my warm hat, gloves, and socks when I go out in the cold weather. I’m thankful for the good warm clothing in the Winter time. I had a good Mama and she always tried to get all the grandchildren to always wear warm clothes and socks in the Winter. I do the same. I’m alot like my Mother which is a sweet compliment that I give to myself.

  4. I have a strong admiration for anyone with Granny’s talent. It must come from her heart. I worked for Hospice before providing care for my parents. Hospice had volunteers that would donate their goods; blankets, lap robes, booties, gowns, and hats to the patients. I was often moved by their selflessness. God must smile when he feels the love that goes into every stitch. My God bless you and your family for all they do.

  5. I used to knit a lot and really enjoyed learning new stitches and patterns. I made my husband a couple of very nice complicated sweaters when we were first married. Some how the knitting was put aside as my children grew older and I began sewing more and more. Now, I just mend. I will have to look up my knitting needles and give it a try again. Always wished I could do it the German way. Very speedy.

  6. My mother in law was a great knitter. Before she passed, she knitted hundreds of little hats for newborn babies. Those that weren’t used by family were donated to the hospital to make sure every little newborn baby had one as soon as they were born.

  7. I totally agree with your Granny about crochet being good therapy and keeping hands busy, especially during the long dark of winter when we’re stuck inside. What a treasure she is to your family.

  8. My wife crochets a lot. She makes layettes for newborn at our local hospital. We used to take 15 – 18 sets over every month. With the pandemic we are not allowed to take anything in now. She has about 80 sets ready when things settle down. (Or if) I used to macramé and for a while taught it to seniors. These old fingers prevent me from maintaining the tension consistently now,

  9. My grandma knitted, crocheted,tatted and did needlepoint. And she was self taught! I do basic knitting and it is so calming. So glad the girls learned to crochet. We all have/ need something to enjoy.Yarn ,books and watching nature is mine

  10. My wife does not crochet, but has a blanket that her grandmother crocheted and gave to her girl grandchildren. My wife played around with crocheting for a while but gave it up after our children were born and other obligations came along. This has nothing to do with today’s blog and while I am new to Tipper’s blog I am thinking about this while I sit here smacking my lips, I have saw people commenting on fresh pork sausage like they used to have when butchering hogs at home. We are real lucky in that they are two different places close to me that sell their own fresh sausage. The hogs are butchered on Monday, they make the sausage on Tuesday and begin to sell on Wednesday, by Friday afternoon they have sold out. One owner told me had butchered 7 hogs on Monday and had already sold out by Friday morning.

    1. I bought a pork picnic shoulder just a few days ago. I cut it off the bone and trimmed out all the gristle and yucky stuff. By the time I was through I didn’t have enough fat to make good sausage so I trimmed some fat from some bacon ends and pieces and ground it in with the meat. Some sage, black and red pepper and salt made it into some of best pork sausage I’ve ever had. I stopped buying sausage because I didn’t know what was in it. I know everything that’s in my own homemade sausage. It’s more expensive to make than to buy if you factor in my time but I’m retired so time is all I have. Time and some delicious sausage.

      1. Ed, I know what you mean about the fat. The two places I mentioned are McCalls and Billy Gambrel. Both are good, but I like Billy’s the best because he has more fat in his, the last time I tried the other one , you almost had to add grease to pan and the sausage was rubbery. By the way at Billy’s you can buy a hog head, pig knuckles, ribs, back bone ribs, tenderloin, pork chops, bacon, real pretty fatback and maybe a few other pork items. Both places are inspected by the health department and I have no fear at all of what goes into their sausage. Both places are in SC and both processing buildings in their back yards and also sell to produce stands and private owned grocery stores.

  11. I learned to crochet from one of my dearest Aunts. She was so talented and always had the time and patience to teach. You have posted some of Granny’s beautiful handiwork before and I was amazed at the sweaters she made for Chitter and Chatter. Back in the early 50’s, I remember seeing dollies crochet with roses and grapes. I never reached that level of crocheting. I belong to the Country and Town Baptist Sewing Servants group and we sew a lot of items to give a way and we have ladies that crochet and knit little hats for children to be sent to orphanages and the pregnancy center. I checked with the local hospital a couple years ago and asked if they would need some baby blankets and little hats. They were thrilled to have them to give to the new mothers with needs. Chatter did a beautiful job on those two little hats. Don’t enter me cause I don’t have any little ones now, but someone will be thrilled when they receive them. Ya all are really blessed to have Granny nearby.

  12. My friend gave me a crocheted bedspread with raised roses that was made by her daughter-in-law many years ago. It is one of my most prized possessions. I ordered fingerless gloves from one of the girls several years ago and still wear them and still gets compliments each time. I’m sure most of the folks think I crocheted them and I don’t say a word about my lack of talent with the crochet needle.

  13. Well, I can’t crochet. I can whittle a bit. But I recognize the soothing nature of a task that uses hand skill but does not require focused concentration. It is a form of multi-tasking. While the hands are busy the mind can wander all over. That may be why I like walking prayers. I am accomplishing two things but neither takes from the other.

    You should skip me in the drawing though. We don’t have any little’uns in our family anymore. Sigh.

  14. Those sure are beautiful but there no way I could do what granny did. I did make lap coverings. Arthritis gat bad in my hands. My daughter wears this caps. She loves them.

  15. I learned to crochet years ago, but doubt if I could do any now. My sister, Pat, is great at it. She can look at something and make her own pattern. I never could do that, but I am grateful for the knowledge I used to have.
    Very grateful for this blog and the music you share with us. Love your family.

  16. Forty plus years ago, before YouTube, I was determined to crochet a crib blanket for my baby. Not knowing about gauge or hook size, I just bought the prettiest one which happened to be shiny aqua. I got a pattern and fumbled through, undoing more than stitching. By the time our son was born, he had a yellow, pop-corn stitch blanket with uneven sides. Wish I had a Granny!

  17. Precious hats. Granny is absolutely the Queen of Crochet! I’ve never seen anyone produce like she does.
    My Aunt Reva used to say ” if you knit, crochet, or chew chewing gum you’ll never go crazy”.

  18. Good Morning….I am with Granny and the girls I love to crochet and also to knit great past times..love your site Tipper…look forward to it each day! Be Safe!

  19. I cannot knit, crochet or type. Imagine my horror at computers which I’d managed to ditch all my life! I still think the damage done far outweighs any good on this entity. But here’s to all the lovely people like the twins and Granny who can “rock” a bag of yarn! I’m lucky to tie a jewt string myself. Please don’t enter me in a giveaway because there’s no younguns in my household to wear such beautiful hats!!! I’m thankful for apple cider, apples in general and apple pie, fritters cooked apples etc!!!! Love to all and HEALTH IN AMPLE SUPPLY TO KEN!!!

  20. My husband’s grandmother always made crocheted “boggins” for our kids when they were little. Would love these for my grandkids!

    1. Love this memory, my granny always said with needles in your hand you will always be happy. Thank you for your daily posts, look forward to reading positive, happy over breakfast, coffee

  21. I think a lot about the song by Harry Chapin ” cats in the cradle ” . I heard someone say, that ” Time ” is the hardest thing to give away even tho it’s free, could be I got my priorities all bent. I’m speaking about myself, I have to take inventory from time to time on the things that should matter the most, and you know they are always the things that give me the most pleasure in the end. Why do I keep doing this ?

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