crocheting a hug

When I found out my best friend's mom had cancer and was having surgery, I immediately started crocheting. Heavy scarf season was on its way out, a blanket would take too long. So I settled for a slanket of sorts. Or skanket, but that sounds bad. Ok... a pocket shawl. I figured hospitals are cold, especially during a Texas summer, and since I couldn't be there with her, it could hug her since I couldn't. Well I had big plans for this shawl. I picked out a blue yarn because I thought it would be calming, but if I had to do it over again, I might have picked green because its healing. I had planned to line the pockets with cute fabric that I found, but could not figure out how to sew the lining in. And the crocheting took me longer than expected. I also edged the shawl about 10 times in different colors before settling on the cranberry color. I wanted it to be perfect. I learned a lot from this project.... what stitches work well as a drape, how to join in new yarn (which my book does totally backwards...in case you're wondering you just tie a knot around the old yarn), how to edge something with chain spaces. But it did not come out as I had dreamed, there were errors and I didn't finish it in time so it didn't make it to the hospital. I feel horrible about that. It is, however, very warm and very soft. I loved crocheting it on my lunch hour at work because its very cold at my office.

Her surgery went really well, she is walking, and hopefully settling in at where the hug awaits her. She has been like a mother to me. I love her very much and hope that gets well soon!