Saying Goodbye; Creative Comfort

It had to happen eventually.

I knew it would. 

The time has come for our family to leave the elementary school whose community we have been a part of for the past dozen years.  

It's where both my children learned to read and write (in three languages).  

It is where friendships were kindled.

It is where the Friday afternoon knitting club had met (since 2004).

It is where the Lorax Project took root.
(See http://knittishisms.blogspot.ca/2010/06/double-mitzvah.html)

And so when the reality of our departure was imminent, I knew I could not leave this lovely group of people without one last knitting project.  With the Lorax Project in mind, I decided to spin the concept with a slightly different weft. The Lorax Project was a blanket, of sorts.  We sent our departing Principal into retirement with it. This new project was to be a redux, a revisioning.  But a project I would embark on alone.  Sometimes the toughest journeys are the ones we have to travel alone. I thought about what this school has meant to me (and my children) and from there, I came up with the concept that is

CREATIVE COMFORT:

Made from Eco Sock Yarn remnants, Creative Comfort incorporates a HAMSA, a TREE OF LIFE, the CHAI (Life Symbol) and the STAR OF DAVID.

Hamsa / The Healing, Protective Hand. Rebel Knitter c.2016

Magen David - To Shield and Protect through Cultural Knowledge.
Rebel Knitter c.2016

Chai / Life / 18 (the age of the school).
Rebel Knitter c.2016

The Tree of Life (based on an element from the Tree of Life Afghan)
Rebel Knitter c.2016

Anyone who knows me understands, in my mind sock-knitting is the ultimate form of cherished knitting. Consequently, to knit this piece with my favourite yarn was a natural choice.

But what does it mean?

Aside from the obvious symbolism of the iconography chosen, the overall idea was most relevant. It is a piece that looks like it belongs as part of a larger woolly fabric... that is intentional.

As any parent will tell you, when you have a toddler who loves their security blanket so much that you need to train them off of it, because quite simply, they are too old to be shlepping their threadbare, shabby, old 'banky' all over town.... one of the most common methods is to cut a corner off the tattered comfort piece and slowly wean the child by decreasing it's size daily or weekly.  I flipped this idea on its head a wee bit.  I created that 'corner' to leave behind at the school.  I, on the other hand, get to keep the lion's share of the fabric that is far from bedraggled: the intellectual fabric that are my children; these wonderful educators and the staff of this school helped weave their sense of social justice, they succeeded in inspiring curiosity, nurturing and honouring diversity as well as in creating a safe and warm community in which to grow and learn.

Thank you PPDJDS.

We will miss you.