What do beans have to do with knitting? Nothing really except that I like to snap the ends off of beans while sitting in my knitting chair. I always knit in this chair at home and, if I am snapping beans indoors, I also use my knitting chair.
For some reason I find trimming the ends off beans in the kitchen in the standard fashion, with a knife, to be endlessly tedious. However sitting in my chair with a mess of beans and a couple of bowls, snapping off the ends is calming and allows me time to let my mind meander over the course of my thoughts much as it does when I am knitting.
The knitting chair was given to me by George’s mother; she purchased it soon after they moved to this country when George was still small. She recovered it and gave it to me shortly before our marriage. It is a large overstuffed chair in which I am always comfortable. When I knit in this chair I think of Stella, even though she did not knit anymore in her later years, because the chair was hers and she worked with yarns and knitting so much of her life.
When I am snapping beans in the knitting chair I think about my grandmother, Granny. Somehow I have it in my head that Granny told me you should always snap the ends off of green beans rather than cut them. This may or may not be true; I might have imagined it in order to justify my dislike of cutting the ends off of beans. I have no specific memory of Granny snapping beans although I can imagine her doing this. She may be laughing at me from Heaven at the thought. I have no memories of Granny knitting or crocheting but I do remember afghans she made, so she must have done one or both of these things. At any rate when I sit in my knitting chair snapping beans I feel connected to two beloved family members who are no longer with us, and this makes me happy, almost as happy as knitting.