One of the stores (Donna's Yarn and Craft Centre) that sells our beads, buttons and shawl pins was giving us requests for several custom shawl pin orders. This customer especially loved the ones with the rich textures and fiesta spiral bead at the end of the stick. We were wondering who this was until we finally met her in person.
This is Dianne. She is not only an avid knitter but she is blind! She is an amazing lady and she shared her story with us and how she can do something without her sight that we take so much for granted. She explained how her husband helps her by sorting all her wool in piles by color. The wool is placed into bags and she tags it with that color in braille.
So how does she read a pattern? Her friend Donna will help her find the right patterns she is looking for. They are then mailed to Marjorie Arnott who is also blind. Marjorie converts the pattern, using a special embosser into braille and sends it back to Dianne.
We were extremely interested in how she chose her shawl pins to go with the sweaters and wraps she knits. Because she cannot actually see them, she would go by touch and how they feel to her instead. She is especially drawn to the ones we make with deep rich textures. You might recognize Helen Breil's texture sheets that were used in the ones shown here.
Dianne is a real inspiration to both Dave and I and we feel we can learn so much from her. I hope you found her story just as inspiring.
