The last couple of days I've been immersing myself in lace knitting - namely a Forest Canopy shawl. It seems tragedies strike families up here in isolated areas and FIFO work just as much as families in the cities, but the effects are worsened by the family members being separated, and delays in family being able to fly home to their loved ones. So when a workmate or part of our crew up here suffers a family loss it's amazing how much the crew all band together to give support.
It seems we've had a few more tragedies over the last couple of months than quite seems "fair" - men have lost newborn babies, wives and one young charismatic man even took his own life. We held his memorial service yesterday as a way for everyone in the camp to gain some closure and say goodbye to him.
Heavy stuff I know, and not the normal warm-fuzzy blog content I usually write. At the moment though, the lace I'm knitting is tied in to this support network. For one of the men whose baby passed away, all the crew put money together so he could afford to take some time off work to be at home with his wife. I don't really know him very well, but decided I would knit a prayer shawl for his wife, to give her something special to show the compassion, love and support for her and her husband. I'm not a traditionally religious person, so rather than an actual prayer each stitch, I'm trying to fill each stitch with kindness, light and love for them both.
So the Forest Canopy shawl was a nice simple pattern with beautiful results that I could knit up reasonabley quickly and send on. I'm using the glorious ArtFibers Golden Chai which is tussah silk and an absolute dream to work with. When difficult things happen to good people it just seems a natural progression for knitters to want to knit for them - I hope it will be something pleasant for them to surround themselves and feel not just my support and thoughts but those of knitters worldwide.
It seems we've had a few more tragedies over the last couple of months than quite seems "fair" - men have lost newborn babies, wives and one young charismatic man even took his own life. We held his memorial service yesterday as a way for everyone in the camp to gain some closure and say goodbye to him.
Heavy stuff I know, and not the normal warm-fuzzy blog content I usually write. At the moment though, the lace I'm knitting is tied in to this support network. For one of the men whose baby passed away, all the crew put money together so he could afford to take some time off work to be at home with his wife. I don't really know him very well, but decided I would knit a prayer shawl for his wife, to give her something special to show the compassion, love and support for her and her husband. I'm not a traditionally religious person, so rather than an actual prayer each stitch, I'm trying to fill each stitch with kindness, light and love for them both.
So the Forest Canopy shawl was a nice simple pattern with beautiful results that I could knit up reasonabley quickly and send on. I'm using the glorious ArtFibers Golden Chai which is tussah silk and an absolute dream to work with. When difficult things happen to good people it just seems a natural progression for knitters to want to knit for them - I hope it will be something pleasant for them to surround themselves and feel not just my support and thoughts but those of knitters worldwide.
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