Wijegunawardene

I have collected over the years and we always use the name given in the book,” she shares. Names like ‘Tea Time’ are used and her own most treasured creation ‘Mom and Me’ has a special story to it.

“This piece is something I did with my mother about 46 years ago.” Having lost her father when she was just 10 she and her mother have always shared a close bond. “When I married I had to move to Dimbula because of my husband’s posting there.” She then crocheted bits of a tablecloth in her free time - while travelling or even while relaxing in the evenings and every time she came to Colombo attached the pieces she had made to the same tablecloth her mother was crocheting. Since the book that contained this particular pattern had no name for it, Nilanthie christened it “Mom and Me”. “It was the first and most memorable thing I made,” she says adding that since she has made sweaters for her children and family members.

Her mother possessed a knack for crocheting, sewing and even knitting and so Nilanthie’s was an early introduction to crafts, she reminisces.

A self-professed “happy addict”, Nilanthie is so accustomed to crocheting that her family and friends even found her at it on her hospital bed after surviving a heart attack. “I’m so used to it that it relaxes me and I am able to count the knots even while doing other things,” she says. Nilanthie’s crafts- crocheted items such as table cloths, glass coasters and even crocheted jewellery will be on sale on November 30 along with gourmet food, made by one of her grand nieces. Included will be her handmade Christmas bonbons, (a skill acquired from another aunt) and even a nativity scene made entirely out of knitted figurines.