The Jumper.

Margaret

The Jumper.

My friend had just had a baby boy, and I wanted to do something very special for him. I worked with a lovely girl called Margaret. She was very good at her job and was a Supervisor over us, but she wasn’t like other Supervisors you and I would imagine for she was humble, quiet and sweet. She was a fantastic knitter and even better than that, she was like me left handed! My poor Mummy had tried and failed miserably to teach me to knit, but because I was left handed it was an impossible task! I even manage to get the needles stuck together, knotted up with the wool. I could knit the basics, hats and scarves but not read a pattern. But for once I wanted to do something special and finish the job. And as Margaret was regularly doing her knitting at work in her lunch break and without looking, I thought she would be the best person to ask, for I am sure she would be up for the challenge! I wanted her to help me to knit a newborn tiny blue jumper for my friend’s baby!!!! How hard could it be?

Bless her, she was up for it!

Margaret told me the size of needles to get and the wool etc. and we got started. I was busy with my Life but this was important. So in the evenings I would do the knitting on the tiny blue newborn jumper and take it to Margaret the following day at work I would have done about two rows. She would inspect it with a keen eye and tell me I was, “Doing good.” Then the Friday she would give me my ‘homework’ of what she wanted me to knit, and I’d spend hours on it over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Monday Lunch time I’d bring it over to Margaret and without saying a word she would undo the five to six lines that I’d painstakingly laboured and put my heart and soul into and I’d ask, “What? What did I do wrong?” She’d reply, “You made a mistake on the first line on the Friday evening” so it meant, every single stitch I’d knitted was wasted! But all was not lost in a flash Margaret would knit the five to six lines in a quickly as I watched!!! I would carry on with my knitting slowly but as sincere and with a willing heart. For the next four or five weekends the same routine would be repeated I’d bring it back for Margaret to look at and check and she’d undo it and knit it how it should have been done. Then she went on a three week holiday and the when she returned I went on a two week holiday! So no knitting was done then....

So after many, many weeks and months the tiny little blue newborn jumper was finally completed. I was SO proud of myself, of my accomplishment.  It looked fantastic. It was perfect. I wrapped it up and I was honest, and said to my friend when she opened it, “I know it too small, I did start to knit this when baby Hal was born, I know it is now far too small for him, but you can either keep it as a keepsake or give it to some other newborn baby you will meet in the future. She thanked me warmly and I left.

I was later able to laugh about this little tiny newborn blue jumper for the little lad who had outgrown it weeks before, that Margaret had really knitted 100%!                                    

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