The Truly Terribly Horrible Sweater

Full title: The Truly Terribly Horrible Sweater That Grandma Knit & The Tale Of The Traveling Scarf

A long time ago Gamma Rita sent us a book. It was called the Truly Terribly Horrible Sweater... That Grandma Knit.

She also did her best to knit some truly terrible and horrible sweaters for the boys, which I swore wouldn't fit them until the first grade at the time.

It turns out Gamma Rita and I both messed up. The sweaters are actually pretty cute and at a little over 2.5 years old they fit my boys fairly well, so I decided to run with it in the backyard today.

– Oh hi everyone. Is us. We is posing for picture now.
– Mommy totally bribe us with cheese crackers to get 'dis shot.

– Cheese crackers is good bribe, but is you thinking what I thinking bro'?
– Er...

– Because I is thinking it be fun to get up to no good.
– That's nice Seth. I is working my tail off for 'dis pose. And also for cheese crackers.

– Also I let you in on a little secret now. Mommy can see what you is up to.
She right behind that camera.
– Uh-oh. That not good then.
– No, is not good. You pretty much out of luck on cheese crackers.

– I think I work on next year's Hallowe'en costume to distract Mommy then.
I is so going to kick butt at being Ron Weasley. Even 'dis sweater not stop me.
Obscuro now!* 

• • • • • • • 

There are books I can never ever read to my boys because I get a lump in my throat before the first sentence is done. The Truly Terrible Horrible Sweater That Grandma Knit is Gamma Rita's personal lump-in-the-throat book. Or at least when she gets to the part that says:


"What about the yellow?" [the little boy] asked. 

His [Gamma] put her arm around his shoulder. "Yellow is the happiest color I know. I remember the day your [Mommy] called to tell me [she was having two baby boys]. Your [Mommy] waited a long time to have a baby. It didn't seem like it would ever happen – and then you were born. You [both] are the sunshine of all of our lives." 

The truth is that I can't read that part of the book either without getting a lump in my throat. I did wait a long time to have babies and when the time was finally right my body wasn't very cooperative as it turned out. In the end, once again, we were the lucky ones.

Times two.

And more (so much more) than I ever could have hoped or asked for.

Even on the crummy days.

• • • • • • • 

Of course this post is also about something else Gamma Rita knit so if you're done having a decent sniffle over the last part (or maybe that was just me?), here is the Tale Of The Traveling Scarf (which I promise is nothing to sniffle over).

Last winter when Gamma Rita came to visit she brought along a scarf which was a wise choice for winter in Toronto. It mostly wasn't needed last winter because it was a pretty mild winter here all things considered, but on the days it was needed it was really, really needed**.

When it came time for Gamma Rita to return home she took her scarf with her, but accidentally left it behind in a public restroom at the Vancouver airport and didn't realize it was missing until long after she got home – at which point she decided to forget about it.

This past summer while Gamma Rita was visiting she took the boys out for a stroll one fine day and happened upon a box at the end of someone's yard. It was full of items to take for free should the mood strike you – books, odds-and-sods and believe it or not, Gamma Rita's scarf.

The same scarf she left behind in an airport bathroom in Vancouver had not only returned itself to Toronto but ended up in a box at the end of someone's yard only a few blocks from my home.

This is the scarf: 

The pattern was one Gamma Rita created. It's one of a kind and there was no mistaking it for anything other than the one she knit herself.

A little bit spooky, but a true tale nonetheless. Gamma Rita has knit many things over the years, but even she was pretty surprised that one of her projects managed to find its way home (so to speak).

- L. 

*No worries - everyone got their cheese crackers as promised. Seth is no spell caster, but he sure is cute even when he's getting up to no good.

**I will never, ever forget that day and neither will Gamma Rita. The boys were well bundled up and protected under their stroller cover, but for the rest of us it was like nails through the forehead walking home. 

PS. More pics from today. At the risk of sounding like a proud mama, these boys of mine photograph rather well, yes?

– Is like Mommy's eyeglasses!

And last, but not least, a shot of my boys together sans bribery:

– Who Mommy kidding? We already has cheese crackers.
– We totally working on dessert options now. Trust me, we got
'dis one covered everyone.