Is It Maryvale-Worthy?

Somewhere between, "To be or not to be," and, "Are we there yet?" lies the burning philosophical question we have been asking ourselves every year about this time:  Is it Maryvale-worthy?

Back when my friends Susan, Sonja and I were donating blankets to Binky Patrol in Santa Monica, California, someone came up with Maryvale as a place where our blankets might be welcome.

What is Maryvale?  It started as an orphanage in Los Angeles in 1856, and has grown into a facility offering many programs, including a residential treatment program for neglected and abused girls.
It is now located in Rosemead, California.  (Check out maryvale-ca.org for more info.)

We didn't think we had enough blankets for all the girls, so we thought, why not give a special blanket to each girl who graduates?  Each blanket would have to be large enough for a teenager, and it would need to be above-average in beauty in order to honor this important and hard-won graduation.  In other words, the blankets would have to be Maryvale-worthy.  This term has come to mean "exceptional."

The number of graduates varies each year.  We like to have a few blankets in reserve, as we can never predict how many we will need.  One year there were seven graduates!  Yikes!  I admit, I was a little frantic.  We enlisted help--Joan at Monarch Knitting & Quilts in Pacific Grove made a lovely one.  We got all seven blankets done in time.

I usually start making mine in January, but I got a late start this year, in part because I knew Susan was way ahead of the game with one already finished and another almost complete.

Luckily, this past year, I found a cool pattern in the May 2011 issue of Crochet! magazine, called The Hinterland Throw, designed by Shannon Mullett-Bowlsby.  It is the perfect throw for a California girl when made out of cotton, and I can whip out one of these babies in a week or so.  I've already made several for hospice (see the pics on Ravelry).  There are quite a few errata in the originally published pattern, so if you decide to make one, be sure to get the corrections from the Crochet! website.

So here's how the never-ending thread was spun this time:  Haus of Yarn gave a ton of King Tut cotton to my pal Christina for Threads of Kindness.  Christina shares the donated yarn with a bunch of us so we can make preemie blankets, hats, and lap blankets for Alive Hospice.  She also gave me a pile of King Tut cotton specifically so I could make the charity blankets for the Maryvale girls.  Yay, Christina!  Yay, Haus of Yarn!  Behold the newly arrived yarn in all its glory:

Here's what the throw looks like in its beginning stages, surrounded by happy balls of yarn waiting eagerly to be crocheted (yes, I anthropomorphize my yarn.  Doesn't everyone?):

A couple of days ago, I finished the throw.  It just needs blocking.  I will post pics when it's done.  Soon we will know how many blankets Maryvale needs this year.  My crochet hook stands at the ready (I anthropomorphize my hooks, too.  I think I hear it saying, "Aye, aye, Captainhook.")

© 2012 Reyna Thera Lorele