Afghan

I call this blanket Afghan after all of the afghans made by my maternal grandmother – her name to me is Tickah – that I grew up around. As far as I know she has always crocheted, and I took an interest to learning the craft from her when I was about 12 years old. I kept attempting to crochet scarves and blankets like she did but I lacked the dedication to get further than the scale of a headband. Ten years later, I have practiced practicing things a bit more than I had when I was little and wanted to re-learn the crocheting craft from her.

For each of my brothers’ and my bar/ bat mitzvahs, Tickah crocheted yarmulkes to give to the guests during the services. This meant about 200 yarmulkes for each of our services, and she would begin to make them a year or two in advance. I love the yarmulkes that she made for my bat mitzvah and have always admired how she executes the same pattern seemingly without a flaw.

I asked her to collaborate with me on a project that entails my learning this pattern from her and crocheting lots of yarmulkes together to form a blanket.

I look at my afghan entirely as a project of love for my grandmother. I am also, of course, paying homage to a cultural craft and a family tradition, and I hope that if I have Jewish grandchildren one day that I will be able to crochet millions of yarmulkes for their bar/bat mitzvah services. But mostly this was out of respect, admiration, and love for my grand- mother and I enjoyed learning and getting to hang out with her for this project.