Dessert Yarn

So I started another South Bay Shawlette.  Meredith is making one too, and when I told her I was thinking of making a second one, she said why don't you join me?  And just like that I did.
You see I'd just received a ball of yarn from Two Black Sheep.  It's a fingering weight, hand dyed ombre merino in the color You Had Me at Hello.  The name alone was enough reason for me to order some.  It comes all nicely wound up for you, just like in the picture.  You can pull it from the middle or from the outside, your choice.  Strangely enough, that little ball of yarn with it's dark berry colored center makes me hungry for two childhood desserts.

Dessert number 1
When I was a kid my mom often made us tapioca pudding.  She'd serve it in a little glass dish with a teaspoon of strawberry or raspberry jam plopped into the middle.  I remember pulling a little of that jam onto my spoon along with the pudding as I ate towards the center.  I'm quickly crocheting my way to the jam blob in the middle of that skein.  It's quite motivating.

Dessert number 2

When was the last time you made a jellyroll?  My mom and grandma made them often and they were always a treat filled with the same aforementioned jam.  However, no one could make a jellyroll like Olga's mom.
Years ago, when I was a young single mom living in the San Francisco Bay Area at the foot of the San Mateo bridge in a very windy town called Foster City (it was always a challenge to try and light the barbecue there let me tell you) there was a family from Czechoslovakia that lived in the apartment next door.  The kids, Olga and Thomas, were about the same age as my girls and they would play together after school. To this day I can't remember their mom's name.  Heck I don't think I ever got it right back then either, because it was difficult to pronounce and it often embarrassed me that I couldn't grasp it.  My kids just called her Olga's mom and it stuck.  When Olga's mom realized I had no husband, was raising two kids on my own and working full time, she went into complete mother hen mode.  The jellyrolls began to arrive at my door almost weekly.  Here was a woman who barely spoke any English, was alone in an apartment all day in a strange country, taking care of her own husband and kids, and she wanted to take care of me too.
 No wonder those jellyrolls tasted so damn good,  They were full of kindness!
I made one the other day, from the beat up pages of my old Betty Crocker cookbook and thought of her.  Hey Olga's mom?  If you're out there somewhere - this shawl is for you.