So it turns out my endlessly crafty mother was a knitter. For a period of my childhood she was knitting afghans, in particular — multi-colored scalloped rows of yarn. I have no idea how I managed to forget this.
The funny part is how it came up. I picked them up at the airport Christmas morning and brought them back to our loft, where my sister and her family were hanging out. Out of the blue, as we’re getting ready to tackle our little pile of presents, Mom says brightly to me, “I thought about finishing up that latch-hook Santa and wrapping it up for you for Christmas!” She did not yet know that I’ve added knitting to my repertoire, didn’t know this blog existed, and we have never spoken of that half-hooked Santa in all the intervening years. (It’s hilarious that she still has it. They have moved since then!) So I pulled out my iPhone and called up the post where I’d been talking about it, and we laughed, and I finally confessed I’m knitting and gave her the cowl I’d secretly made her.
Their first morning back home, my dad sent me an email with the scanned pattern above: Tootsie Toasters! Complete with my mom’s marginalia. I can’t make any sense of it. (Can you? Decipher for me in the comments if so!) But I’m dying to know what “AUNT LYDIA’S” HEAVY RUG YARN looked like.
(Update: Some of us are taking a swing at this mysterious pattern. See the comments for more.)
(Update Feb ’12: Meg has posted her revisions of this pattern as a free PDF on Ravelry. To see all the Tootsie Toaster-related posts, click here.)
Here’s Mom in her Christmas cowl. It’s Cirilia Rose‘s cozy Columbia Cowl done in Malabrigo Chunky, in the fabulous and impossible to photograph color called Tuareg; details on Ravelry.
Love you, Mom!
