Family Heirlooms and Such

This past weekend our little family went to visit our kin in Tennessee (what Southern accent? no, not me). As is often the case when I visit my mother, she took the opportunity to unload a car's worth of stuff on me (totally justified, since it was my stuff anyway). Along with the college books and old shoes I also brought home something a little more exciting. In this bag lies the oldest ufo (unfinished object) to reside in the babyknits household.

It's a bag of 23.5 squares that were knit by my great grandmother and were intended to be a bedspread at some point. She also included the instructions for the squares, so theoretically, I could finish off this bedspread myself. Except that she was knitting them on US 00's (my mom asked, "Are those needles or pick-up sticks?"). Each square measures about 4 inches square, but there's a lot of variability in the size (gauge issues, maybe?) and there are some very visible stains on some of the squares.

So, the big question is what to do with them. I figure the best option would be to finish off the 24th square and put together what I've got for a pillow. But, is it wrong to use them? I mean they really are heirlooms at this point. But, what is knitting for, if not to be used? I really don't know what's best.

Anyway, my favorite part about this ufo of old is how she stopped. Not only did she stop knitting mid-square, she stopped mid-row. For some reason, I find this highly amusing.

I hope you all have some good advise. Oh, I should also mention that I never met this great-grandmother, as she passed away before I was born. The bedspread-to-be was passed down to my grandmother who is now past the knitting point in her life. Somehow, they ended up with my mother even though she doesn't knit, so now it's up to me and Baby Girl. We won't let you down, great-grandma!

As far as my own knitting goes, I just finished something a little less heirloom-ish. It's a washcloth for Carrie's contest. It's my own little solution to the who's doing the dishes question.

At our house, we used to always come up with little games to figure out who was going to do the dishes (pinball on the computer, trashcan basketball, that sort of thing). Of course now I'm staying at home with Baby Girl, so I'm doing them most of the time, but still I like the idea of his and hers dishcloths with the "His" and "Hers" done in shadow knitting, so you would just pick up a dishcloth and then read it to see who would be doing the washing. Uh, I only have "His" done so far, though. Maybe I should just make two of them, so it would never be her turn.