J is for "Just let me finish this row..."

A Sunny Day in the Garden - My Sister Learning to knit aged 6

 J is for "Just let me finish this row..." the next posting in An Accidental Knitter's ABC meme.  I had a hard time thinking about J.

For some reason I started to think about a photograph of my younger sister learning to knit.  Her passion was (and still is), dolls.  Fearfully skilled at all arts and crafts, even when young, her driving force behind all that concentration was to make things for her dollies.  When my parents moved and we opened up old trunks of stuff, we found the beautifully dressed dolls.  About 70 of them.  Tressy, Barbie, Sindy, Tammy and many others.  She made little cotton and lace dresses and knitted for them all

Aged Two with Doll's Pram

Trying to get her off to school, trying to get her into the car for an outing, trying to get her to do her homework, trying to get her to the teatable, trying to get her to go to bed.  It was always,
"Just let me finish this row..."

When she fell off a horse and broke her hip at ten years old she was in hospital for many weeks, suffering a lot of discomfort.  We took her dolls, knitting needles, crochet hooks, fabric, everything to keep her entertained.  The nurses (who were strict in those days), gave up trying to persuade her to keep her bed clear of all this stuff.  She was a craft centre for the entire ward.

My sister is all grown up now.  Highly intelligent, politically active, outstandingly articulate, a consummate organiser of people and events, fanatically hard working, glamorous when the occasion requires it, kind and caring, doing lots of voluntary work.  She sculpts and paints and still has a giant doll collection.  All beautifully dressed.  I have watched her crochet an exquisite cocktail dress for a doll without even looking at a pattern.  And when she settles down to arrange or dress her dolls, "doing some dollying"  that look of deep absorption steals over her face and I'm swept back forty years.