Project Linus

A friend messaged and said she had a bunch of jigsaw puzzles she could send me if I needed puzzles. It brought me back to a few years ago, Early and Pre-Pandemic when I was doing 1000 and 1500 piece puzzles pretty regularly. It was my obsession slash compulsion for a while, and then it just kind of died out. I guess this was before I started crocheting afghans. Or maybe that crocheting compulsion has ebbed and flowed, because I remember crocheting some blankets for the kids in the Occupy DC tents downtown in 2012. They looked very, very cold.

I tend to be compulsive about everything I do. Why can’t I be compulsive about something like jogging or yoga? I don’t know, it’s just never been that appealing. I did go through a stage back in Law School where I compulsively swam a mile at the pool every day, and if I missed a day, I felt like I was going crazy. That really fed into the eating disorder I developed in Law School.

Max had two great aunts when he was a child at the Jersey Shore. Apparently they were compulsive cleaners and it was uncomfortable to visit them because of all the cleaning products and sprays they used. But eventually they were overwhelmed by their cleaning compulsion and they flipped over and became hoarders and couldn’t throw anything away, no matter how small the debris was. So it was equally uncomfortable to visit them after that. Pick your obsession/compulsion carefully.

My Dad taught me to crochet. I guess that’s a bit unusual, but he had a slipped disc and did a lot of those projects while he was recovering. My mom did teach me to knit and sew. I’m not exactly a whiz with different stitches and I tend to stick to a basic stitch. I got into making blankets and afghans about 10 or 15 years ago when Sarah started having surgeries.

Sarah had a lot of orthopedic surgeries on her legs, feet, and hips. Her hips came out of the socket, which is common in kids with severe cerebral palsy. The rigidity and contractures of the muscles and tendons in the legs literally pulls the bones out of place. For her first surgery, her hipbone popped back into place when the contracture was released. But eventually she needed full hip surgery. And she needed surgery to straighten her spine, because she had a curve (scoliosis) that pulled her spine sideways, also from contractures. They placed a “Magec Rod” in her spine that was lengthened every 3-6 months. Her spine was beautifully straight after that, but it was a huge surgery with a long recovery.

So when Sarah had her first surgery, and we got to meet her in the Recovery Room, she was covered up by a beautiful little handmade knit blanket. There was a tag that said it was from Project Linus, a volunteer project that makes handmade blankets for children in hospitals. It was lovely to see her snuggled under this little blanket, which we kept. So I found our local chapter of Project Linus and started crocheting for them.