Yes folks, you read that title correctly! I am knitting lace!
It's shocking to be true and something I fully believed was absolutely outside of the realm of skill for me!
But after watching the amazing women in "The Book of Negroes" on CBC and witnessing specifically the scene where the heroine Aminata Diallo is being sold for a second time to another owner, and she is being forced to leave the woman who took care of her and raised her after being brought on the slave ships from Africa - the tender and caring Georgia, whose few possessions included this beautiful, handspun shawl which she wore faithfully every day, and which, as Aminata is being forcibly dragged from the plantation reaches out to her and gives her the shawl to remember her by ...
(it's ok, there should be tears at this point ... )
And Aminata wraps it around herself and hugs it to her and buries her face in the shawl as she is being pulled away against her will, never seeing her beloved Georgia again.
I was moved, and heartbroken and so deeply touched by the love between these two women and the gesture of her beloved shawl to Aminata that I finally realized there is a much deeper and more universal connection to these handcrafted heirloom pieces and what they represent culturally and historically for women.
I wanted to try and make one, and perhaps get good enough that one day I might be able to finess one straight from some lovely sheep's raw wool to the finished fine lace shawl for my daughter ... who may one day even pass it on to her future children ...
Unfortunately I am not there yet ... but where there is a will there is a way, and I am a rather stubborn creature who luckily has the fabulous good fortune to know some amazing women out there who already create gorgeous shawls and perhaps who, over a good cup of tea and some lively conversation might be able to help me along on this new journey of mine ... and we can share our secrets and our skills from woman, to woman ...
to woman.
To all my Sisters - I love you all!
xo nikki
