With Christmas and New Year out of the way it was time to turn our thoughts to my oldest daughter having her 18th birthday.
I had been planning what to give her for a couple of years (this needed some singular thought): I wanted it to be something special that she could keep, and that would be a part of me, a reminder of my love for her (you get like this when you are a mum and your babies move into adulthood - it is permitted!).
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| The completed Afghan |
I love to knit and do needlepoint, so I decided to knit her an Afghan rug, something cosy that she could wrap herself up in and, hopefully, think fondly of home. I decided to do a classic cable design, a pattern called “Mystery Afghan” by Janet Szabo (available for a small fee from the http://www.ravelry.com/ site). Just an aside about ravelry.com; if you like to do any knitting or crochet, or think you might like to, then this site is the place to visit. It is a great place to look up patterns and learn how other people fared with a design you may be considering doing, any errata, yarn suggestions etc. It is truly a brilliant site - I just love it.
The rug was knitted in seven strips which looked uncannily like scarves and was then sewn into one big piece. My daughter did ask me once what I was knitting: “A scarf for Brian …”. She must have thought I was knitting a lot of scarves, or more likely she didn’t give it a second’s thought, so my gift was a complete surprise for her.
I wrapped it in tissue and tied it with a huge satin ribbon and placed it in a sturdy box bought especially to store it. I tucked a spare ball of yarn in with it - for any repairs - and sewed on my own label.
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| The box - now she wants the whole set of them! |
Another part of her pressie was a photo book which catalogued her childhood from when we adopted her to her graduation, just before Christmas 2010. I used a company called Momento to put it together. The photos I had of her spanned the analogue and digital ages, so there was a bit of fiddling around to upload and to get them into some sort of order. I imagine there are many families like ours with photographic memories stored in a hotchpotch of albums, cardboard boxes and CDs. It took me ages to get them all together. Many of the analogue ones had succumbed to the ravages of time - mould, scratches, fading and so on - but with a few minor tweaks in Photoshop I was able to make them look pretty reasonable.
And the finished result was spectacular (if I may say so!). It was definitely worth all the hours of work.
And of course, the final part of her present was a small piece of jewellery, because what would an 18th be without that?
And of course, the final part of her present was a small piece of jewellery, because what would an 18th be without that?
The thing I am most pleased about is the personal nature of her present. I hope I have given her something she will treasure as she moves into adulthood and has her own family.
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| My daughter hiding under her blanket |
On another note, and still on my oldest daughter, she got her International Baccalaureate results a couple of days ago. The IB Diploma is marked out of 45 and she got 45. What a most impressive result. I had a quick look at the IB site stats and it seems that, on average, only 0.2 per cent of candidates achieve that result. Out of nearly 40,000 candidates, worldwide, at the last sitting that meant only 96 managed that score. I am a suitably proud mother. Well done indeed my girl. I am so proud of you. This is YOUR time to shine.
