Chilling with some rainbows in the Isle of Wight

Something is lost, something is found.

Its been a busy yet not really busy time here at the virtual yurt. All my crochet energy has been channelled into completing the As We Go blanket. It is very nearly complete and I am working on the border still. More about the As We Go next time because I would like it to be complete so I can post pretty pictures.

So now to the lost and found of the title, those who know me via FB and in real life will already know that this week I lost the little dark star’s special blanket. I went for an appointment at 10am only to be told I had noted the wrong time and I was actually expected after 3pm. I felt loathe to journey back home again on the bus as we had already had quite a ‘fractious’ journey into town already. I decided to kill some time mooching around town and then spend a couple of hours at the town park and gardens.

It was soooo hot and sunny. I used little dark star’s SPF50 gloop to save my pale skin from frying. The park has a giant sand play area so I ended up covered in the stuff, it stuck so well to the suncream I actually resembled a human sandpaper. I felt over heated and sticky and grubby. The buggy was laden with shopping and two punnets of fruit from the market as well as the usual paraphernalia. In the end I decided I needed to head back to the cool of the shopping centre and get a cold drink for us both. The wombfruit didn’t really want to leave the park but I distracted her with an ice cream (her first one ever from the Ice Cream Van). As I snapped an obligatory picture of her holding the cone I spotted the blanket was missing from its usual spot flappedover the back of the buggy by her shoulder

Just typing that I felt the same sick feeling I had at the time. Even before I began the rabid search of the bags and buggy I knew it was gone. I feel pathetic admitting this but I almost started crying there and then, as was it wasn’t till I was in a shop and my friend called to check I was ok that actual tears leaked out. I don’t know what people must have thought, I had felt compelled crouch down to stick my head between the rails so no one including the dark star could see me crumble. I’d probably have looked less odd just standing there and crying really!

I have talked about my love of bamboo/cotton blend ripple blankets before but this blanket is probably more special than anything else I have made. I hooked it up whilst pregnant with my baby in mind. Hours of sitting quietly in an empty house, everyone else at school and work, just me with my crochet draped over an ever growing and moving bump.

When the little dark star was born I didn’t dress her for the first day, instead we put a nappy on her and she was wrapped in the bamboo ripple blanket next to her skin and over that a beautiful knitted rainbow blanket my friend had made. She had another special blanket I had made as a ‘sniffy/foffy’, a giant granny square but it was the bamboo ripples that I always wrapped her in or covered her over with first at bedtime as the bottom layer. Sadly the other ‘special blanket’ was lost somewhere between the childminders and getting home. I was sad about that but I didn’t dwell long on it, the little dark star never seemed to have formed a huge attachment with it and we easily just began using the ripple blanket instead. The ripple however she would ask for and “made ip” was what it was first called, The Made Ip Blank.

She is like a sponge this child and takes everything in. At bedtimes I always quietly prattle on to her about this and that as she falls asleep; our day, what we are doing tomorrow, something cute or funny she’s done, how much I love her and one night I told her about how I made the ripple blanket especially for her when she was in my tummy and that when she was born she was wrapped in it all soft against her skin and how special it is. She was still small then but she took it all in and started calling it the Made Ip blanket. It took a while for me to work out what she meant but I was super chuffed when I realised she had listened so carefully and seemed to treasure the blanket as much as I did 🙂

I know its silly but losing that blanket was just awful. When she started asking for it later in the day I actually just didn’t know what to say 😦 It actually made me get a pain in my chest. I explained later that it had been lost at the shops, I’d looked everywhere and it was gone. Her upset face when she repeated that back to me later on “byanket is gone at the shops, I ‘yost’ it” was nearly heartbreaking.

I shared my woe on Facebook and before I knew it people were sharing my post far and wide to try and locate the blanket. The man of the yurt was calling the bus garages just in case it was on the bus and the shopping centre in case it was handed in. Friends were offering to help look, calling relatives who work in the bus garage and tagging me in Facebook check ins where I had been that day. I have to say I was and still am pretty overwhelmed at people’s responses. Quite a lot of people’s FB messages and post comments on my profile made it clear they knew how special that blanket was to me and to the little dark star. It’s an odd thing to think how much other people have noted what is important to you and understand how losing something like this is making you feel and actually care enough to help you find it. I’d lost the blanket but I found out that people are good and kind and that they care about me. One friend even turned up outside that blasted appointment (remember the one I was waaaay too early for and probably led to me losing the blanket) and bundled us into her car so I wouldn’t have to face the bus again and then she spend the rest of the afternoon with me.

There is of course a happy ending, the blanket was handed in at the shopping centre, my husband called up again he next day and they said they had it, so we went and collected it. I wasn’t there myself to see the little dark star’s face but my eldest wombfruit assures me it just lit up and she was speechless and she hugged the blanket really tight and gave it lots of little squeezes.

I lost a blanket that day and we got it back the next but in he meantime I found something else. I found that I have some really kind and awesome people in my life.