A blanket of love…

I have been trying to write a clever post to present my latest design, “Petit Prince and Little Star“, which I created in memory of my Little Star. But today… today, Janice made me an amazing gift, and all my plans are gone. And here is what I want to share with you:

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There are times in life when kindness takes a whole new meaning. And when “thank you” or “merci” does not convey nearly enough meaning.

A little more than five months ago, my so loved and awaited little boy became our precious little star, our very special Little Prince. Saying that these months have been hard is an understatement. I miss my little boy every moment of the days and nights. And I always will.

This afternoon, Janice came to visit, as she often does. She was carrying a large box, and as she handed it over to me, she said “you already know what it is”. I didn’t. And I was blown away by what I found in there. My loving partner hinted that, perhaps, I could have guessed, as I helped putting together another blanket of love for a lovely lady, less than a year ago. The truth is that it felt so natural at the time to take part in it, and it never even occurred to me that people would do something like this for me.

A Blanket of Love from so many generous and lovely knitters and crocheters

And Janice said “wait, there is more”. My other half was at home. We sat together on the sofa. She gave me a link to a video that her son and daughter have put together, and…

A Blanket of Hugs from Duncan Anderson on Vimeo.

A Blanket of Hugs – A story of friendship, compassion and the kindness of strangers.

This short film follows the journey travelled by 50 people, friends and strangers, from all over the world, each a member of the knitting/crochet community of Ravelry. In total, 140 squares of love were created using the craft of knitting or crochet. We hope this love when added together will bring the comfort of our arms and help to ease the pain..if only a little.x

Thank you to all who took part in this project. You are amazing!
Special thanks must also go to Julie and Zemy who co-ordinated everything in the USA for the Sock Madness Forever group.

Also to Dawn9163 who as part of the Knitting Goddesses (and Gods) group helped with emails and undertook the mammoth task of knitting the border of the final blanket.

HellsBells for her Twinkle squares which I know will have special significance to Aurelie.
Lidija for her kindness in asking her Diva friends to join in, and to ‘The Divas’ for welcoming me into their group.
Gingerpuddy, poppydog, millymollymandy, benbah and numerous others who sent gifts, chocolate, cards and good wishes to both myself and to Aurelie and her family.

I sincerely hope I have not left anyone out, if so please accept my apologies. I am not known for my organisational skills, so this has been a challenge!

Finally, I would like to thank my son Duncan and daughter Jenny who gave up their time to film, photograph and piece this little film together xx

Janice Anderson

I still can’t find words to say how moved I am. “Thank you” is so not-enough. This blanket of love has been created thanks to over 50 lovely people. I have been lucky to meet a couple of them, but most of them I “know” only through the magic of Ravelry and emails. And some of them I don’t even know. All these lovely people have taken the time to knit or crochet some squares. All these little patches of love have been travelling from all over the world. Janice has lovingly sewn all these squares together, and Dawn has knitted the border all around. The finished blanket is amazing. I keep on looking at every square, discovering new details, little hearts and little stars knitted in lace, texture or colourwork. A couple monkey faces. Flowers. More colourwork. More texture. More lace. Crochet. Knitting. Love and thoughts in every square. In every stitch.

Thank you to each and everyone who participated in putting together this blanket of love, and who sent letters, cards, gifts, for me and my toddler. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will treasure it, and cuddle it. It surely brings a lot of comfort to think that the world is full of so many lovely people who care for each other.

I have in mind this little quote from The Little Prince, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry exactly 70 years ago, which helps me so much as I think about my little prince, my precious little star…

 «Les gens ont des étoiles qui ne sont pas les mêmes. Pour les uns, qui voyagent, les étoiles sont des guides. Pour d’autres elles ne sont rien que des petites lumières. Pour d’autres, qui sont savants, elles sont des problèmes. Pour mon businessman elles étaient de l’or. Mais toutes ces étoiles-là se taisent. Toi, tu auras des étoiles comme personnes n’en a…  […] Quand tu regarderas le ciel, la nuit, puisque j’habiterai dans l’une d’elles, puisque je rirai dans l’une d’elles, alors ce sera pour toi comme si riaient toutes les étoiles. Tu auras, toi, des étoiles qui savent rire ! […] Et quand tu seras consolé (on se console toujours) tu seras content de m’avoir connu. […] Ce sera comme si je t’avais donné, au lieu d’étoiles, des tas de petits grelots qui savent rire…»
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le petit Prince

“All men have stars, but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travellers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems… But all these stars are silent. You-You alone will have stars as no one else has them… In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars will be laughing when you look at the sky at night..You, only you, will have stars that can laugh! […] And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me… […] It will be as if, in place of the stars, I had given you a great number of little bells that knew how to laugh…”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

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A(nother) little message from Janice:

Hello,

Finally the journey has come to an end. The blanket was finally delivered to Aurelie this afternoon. It was a lovely moment, but very emotional for both of us. My son uploaded the film today so you can all watch the story unfold. Thank you all so much, I could not have done it without you. Please read the introduction before watching as some of you may have a mention, and I would not like you to miss out 🙂

First I have a couple of apologies to make. In the end, due to logistics and time constraints, the film was uploaded without a preview from myself to check everything. As a result there are a couple of errors. 😦

The lovely square submitted by Kikoknit has been labelled wrongly as a square from Scullybunbun – I am so sorry x

To Deepgreenandblue, oops….the editor made spelling mistakes!

Purl Harder Group, Afghanistan

Finally to Jenknitsalot and the PurlHarder Group, Afghanistan. Your lovely squares do not appear in the credits (edit from Aurelie: but they sure are in the blanket, thank you so much!). I submitted the photo to my son separately from the rest, and he has forgotten to add it – I am very sorry x

All these things will be corrected at some point in the future but as the new University term has now begun, I am really pushing the boundaries of motherly love to insist he changes it at the moment!

Please enjoy the journey…..xx

Janice