Inspiration
Life with Wool: Bring on the Blanket Forts
When I was little, we had a sofa-bed that wasn’t quite a sofa or a bed. It was just a big lumpy rectangular cushion on a wide slatted frame with hard wooden arms on either end.
Lower the back and you had a bed.
Lift the back until you heard a click, and you had a vertical surface pretending to be the back of a couch.
I say “pretending” because none of it felt or functioned like my friends’ couches. The cushion was too deep, too low, and far too thin to be comfortable as a bed or couch, and the arms were constantly jabbing and poking when you tried to get cozy.
At some point, my brothers and I discovered that this terrible piece of furniture had a marvelous secret: Both sides moved. If we left the back side down, we could lift the front until it clicked, forming a new wall. Seal off the ends with cushions, drape my father’s heavy wool Marine blanket over the whole thing, crawl inside, and we’d made a perfect blanket fort.
On rainy days, upset days, tired days, any days, really, there was no better place to curl up with leftover Halloween candy and a good Nancy Drew mystery.
The second you crawled beneath that blanket, all the harsh edges of the world disappeared. You disappeared, or so it felt, like a cat behind a curtain who doesn’t realize its tail is sticking out.
I loved how sounds changed inside my fort. The wool blanket functioned like noise-canceling headphones, muting the perpetual toot-toot-toots of my mother’s flute students, the clang and whir of my father’s tools in the basement. Those wooden arms, banished to the outside of our fort, looked like buttresses.
Blanket-fort season always seemed to coincide with November, which combined the post-Halloween cycle with the arrival of cold weather.
My parents refused to turn on the furnace until it was so cold we could see our breath. But once inside the fort, under that wool roof, you were always comfortable. The air was never too hot, never too cold.
The blanket fort was my sanctuary, a safe place where I could retreat from whatever slings and arrows troubled my six-year-old self. Even the darkness felt safe. I knew that the monster under the bed couldn’t find me.
I always assumed that once you were an adult, you wouldn’t need a blanket fort. My parents didn’t have one, and they didn’t appear to be afraid of the dark or the monster under my bed. So I waited and trusted, and eventually I grew up.
It turns out, we never outgrow the need for a soft, woolen sanctuary. We just camouflage them to look like functional, practical everyday objects.
Take, for example, the wool blanket. We always keep a pile of them on the edge of the couch year-round. Each has a story—the electric blue one from Sweden, the slinky purple herringbone one from Britain, the giant poofy one from France that doubles as a yoga mat, and countless others.
Each has a subtly different functionality. Some are lighter than others, or denser, or crisper or warmer, drapier, poofier, cooler…all these blankets serve as medicines we can reach for when we need a specific kind of comfort.
After the first hard frost arrives and the fierce northern winds return, we bring out more blankets and throws. We praise our thriftiness and practicality. We’re trying to keep down our heating bills and reduce our alliance on fossil fuels. All of which is definitely true, but not the whole story.
Visiting friends are always offered a throw when they sit down. Something for their lap, we say, because it’s such a drafty old farmhouse.
They nod sagely and tuck themselves in. While nobody rolls up like a burrito and begins sucking their thumb, I know that we all feel a shared sense of comfort.
What about the wool coat? Is that not just a blanket with arms, a wearable fortress that we can don when we need to venture out into the scariness of the unknown? I certainly feel better when I slip my arms into the sleeves, feel the weight of the fabric settle on my shoulders, and button up the front to stay snug.
My preference for wool isn’t just about aesthetics or textile snobbery. It goes deeper than that, down to a cellular level. The very chemistry of wool gives these fibers all the protections that humans need.
Wool buffers loud noises, cushions unexpected bumps, extinguishes stray sparks, insulates us from extremes, and even traps volatile organic compounds in the air before they can enter our lungs.
November has definitely heralded the return of blanket fort season. We’re grown-ups. We know that there’s a time for hiding away, for seeking solace and silence, for gathering our books and our Halloween candy and tucking beneath the blanket until dinnertime.
And there’s a time for donning our protective cloaks and venturing out into the world to exist and persist for another day.
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I love this Clara. I am going to send it to my blanket knitting group!
I love that you have a blanket knitting group!
Thank you, Clara, for an additional respite today! And my honey and I, and the cats too! enjoy our wooly cozy blankets along with you!
❤️
Thank you, Clara, for an additional respite today!
My comments are not working it seems! Thank you, Clara, for an additional respite today!
Clara brings the world of fiber and our everyday lives together in a brilliant manner. I just finished listening to “The Yarn Whisperer” which she narrates. I could start it again it was that enjoyable.
And when the fort includes an afghan knit with love….
Bliss.
Ahhh yes! A doubly magic fortress.
Thank you for reminding me to think of what comforted me in my childhood! Under a blanket or up in a tree with a good book,exploring the microcosm and macrocosm of nature, drawing,painting, creating, baking…. Back to some strengthening peace!
Yes! Up in a tree with a good book was one of my favorite places. Also I had a small walk in closet with a window seat, which I would sit in and read or daydream. Who says it’s no fun being in the closet? Nancy Drew was one of my favorites. Also Trixie Belden.
I like that, “strengthening peace.” Perfectly put!
I have quietly huddled myself into my own little blanket fort that I can keep myself safely tucked into while at work.
Here in Canada few people seem to remember a flood of pink hats that descended upon Washington DC the day after the most shocking inauguration in my American Life… at least to that point. Here in Canada, in Cambridge, ON where many TV and film production companies come to film picturesque city scenes, river scenes and country estate scenes, I sat under my adult blanket of pink knitting producing simple headwear for friends & family from both sides of the border while watching Elizabeth Moss bring Margaret Atwood’s fiction to life. My neighbours here were all abuzz because Elizabeth Moss & company had filmed this major TV event right here in our town. Did they understand just HOW disturbing it was for a newly arrived US expat to watch events unfold AND watch the protest massacre scene unfold in my new hometown’s streets?
I knit more hats.
8 long years later, my own hat came back out of storage.
Nobody else seemed to remember…
I cannot forget.
My hat has been my blanket fort to get me through the first worst week and, unless I told them, nobody knew… Had they known, I would not likely have been allowed to wear it at work, but I needed it like I have needed few other things in my life.
Nobody knew I was hiding in my own little blanket fort.
But I knew, and I know, and I remember, as we remember today all those who served and sacrificed to end tryanny and fascism.
May their lives not have been in vain.
Because it is Veterans Day.
Because Viktor Orban, admired by Trump, has shown us the fine line between democracy and dictatorship.
Because protection is actually persecution. When we protested in pink hats we, or at least I, did not expect to lose Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court. And all of the loss of personal rights and economic agency for women that follow.
Nicely said, Diane. I knit up a cabled pussyhat to wear on election day. I intended it to protest the loss of rights in other parts of the country (I am very fortunate to live in Minnesota). I did not imagine (though I did fear) that it will need to be worn on a regular basis now.
One must do what one can to safeguard one’s own psyche and lift up others. It behooves us all to work to end tyranny and fascism, so the sacrifices of heroes will not have been in vain.
Your comments are as lovely and timely as the article. Very moving and so true.
J Diane
Well-said. Thank you!
❤️
I took my pink hat out of storage too!! I love your thinking how it can be my only cozy blanket and a little bit of protest too!
What a lovely, lovely post. Thank you.
Rolling myself up like A burrito sounds pretty good to me this morning! Lovely words as usual.❤️
Clara, your writing touches way down deep, the familiarities of woolen forts and left over Halloween candy and oh, those wonderful Nancy Drew books of such delight.
Sweet way to start my day, as is your Daily Respite. Thank you.
It’s my pleasure, Niki.
I wasn’t paying attention at first, and as I read this wonderful, comforting piece, I wondered who the author was. I should have known it was Clara Parkes – Many thanks, Clara!
Rolling myself up like A burrito sounds pretty good this morning! Lovely words as always.
Lovely writing
Thanks
Blanket forts immediately took me back to the fort my brother and I used to construct using my Mom’s upright piano and the piano bench. Books pinned one end of the blanket above the piano keys and the other end on the bench. Crawling inside was cozy and quiet and safe. Thanks for stirring this memory Clara 😉
Thank you Clara.
Thank you! I loved this. I felt better about everything having read this. We all need the warm hug of a wool blanket.
What a wonderful piece for these dark days! I am going to add to my pile of fluffy blankets in the living room to raise the mood and temperature for the next 4 years! Thank you Clara! And thank you J.Diane for the pink hat reminder!
Love the wooly blanket memories. Clara is always good for stirring up the past and bringing warm and cozies to life. Thank you!
“There’s just something about wool blankets,” is how I’ve always explained the piles of them we have in our home. I’ve always had a thing for them. Now I can explain it better. Thank you for your eloquence and vivid imagery!
This feels supportive and comforting. Thank you.
❤️
This is a wonderful essay!
How great for another Respite today in my mailbox! I have at least five knitted blankets in my bedroom which supplement the huge Pendleton bed blanket my husband gave me years ago.
I’m late to the party with making an Old Friend pullover ( in Atlas Peat) but it will be on the blocking board later today. I love wool-knitting with it, wearing it, cuddling up under a blanket made with it-this sweater will be like wearing a blanket fort.
Thank you Clara! Your memories stirred those in me of my father’s Marines blanket.
Together!
A beautiful balm of an article, and comments. To channel all the comforts of our childhood blanket forts is such a perfect antidote to the recent despair, disappointment, anger and fears I’m working to keep at bay. I love the idea of “strengthening peace” – knitting, cooking with family, walking in the wilderness, snuggling under a blanket fort – all things helping to keep hope alive. Thank you all for bringing those memories and feelings of safety and comfort back to me this morning.
I’ve been wearing my pink hat for weeks now, first in hopes that it would magically help ward off another nightmare, and now I will treasure it as more of a little blanket fort. I’m also knitting my first Old Friend sweater and love the notion of having a blanket fort I can wear ♥️
I wish you could hear my huge sigh…of memory, of release, of comfort, all brought about by today’s respite. Every night when I spread my bright plaid Avoca Mills woolen throw on my side of the bed, I know I sleep a deeper sleep. If only I’d bought the full size one…maybe another trip is required…
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I have 2 grandsons that turn my living room into a giant blanket Fort. For extra protection, they want to have spiderwebs, which is yarn strung all over the house. It looks like a laser protection system from a museum. I keep some old acrylic red yarn from my grandmother’s stash for them just for this purpose. Unfortunately it’s not big enough for Nana to crawl in.
When I read an essay/story like the above, I know my MDK membership is important. Thank you
I loved this, Nancy Drew reference and all. It’s a lovely reminder of how sanctuary is often just a blanket throw or a cozy sweater away. Thank you!
It is finally cold and rainy in the Bay Area — our first day of rain — and I am snuggled under my Faribault wool blanket, enjoying your writing. A welcome respite. Thanks, Clara.
I loved reading this. Blankets, old sheets, anything that draped was good for a blanket fort when I was a kid. Now there are blankets for every seat in my living room, and now that my daughter has her own living room, its got multiple blankets, too. So of course, when she got married last summer the obvious gift was – you guessed it – a blanket. I’m hoping there are many forts in its future.
I have kept those wool blankets from my childhood.
Now is the time.
A wool blanket is like money in the bank, something to rely on when times get cold, illness arrives or a good fort is needed for protection. Thanks for all the memories from my childhood. We had it pretty good. The sofa was a curved sectional that left the perfect corner for creating a secret fort or stowing away to wait for Santa.
I have just come through a time where I needed a wool fort ! And last year I bought the most beautiful wool blanket I’ve ever found and there is nothing better than wool to keep us warm and soothe the soul
Hi, would you please share the name of the company where you bought your blanket?
Thanks!!
Thanks, Clara, for a wonderful piece that captures this moment in New England when wool is needed for the cozy warmth it offers.
Clara, I so well remember those chilly autumn days when my idea of comfort was so at odds with those of my English parents who grew up in the 1940s without central heating and with wartime rationing! And I remember the smell of the wooden sweaters they brought to Canada in their single trunks!
Can you please tell me if the green cup (in the last photo) tucked in with the pink blanket, the books and knitting is made by Florian Gadsby? There will be a tiny stylized “F” on the bottom rim if so.
You have an impeccable eye! Yes, it’s one of his mugs. I cherish it and only share it with Bear on special occasions.
Thank you, Clara! And a little confession: my cats love hiding and snoozing in a blanket fort on our sofa and I occasionally make them big enough so I can stick my head in there with them. It’s still pretty great!
Thank you Clara and all who have commented. This reminds me of my childhood (forts and Nancy Drew) and building forts with my grandsons. So comforting and helps me have hope which has been almost non-existent in these weeks. Now I need to knit both a pink hat to wear everyday as well as the Old Friend pullover. Then I can feel comforted while wearing my “fort.” Then I want to knit several wool blankets so each person who comes for a visit can have a wool blanket and can feel the comfort of being loved. MDK is a lifeline for me – knowing that we support each other through difficult times, and hopefully in the future, better times as well.
Oh I love this! Thank you.
I absolutely love getting your newsletters. You put together such interesting links. I look at every one of them. Thank you for what you are doing!
This little article just warmed my heart. I can identify with everything you spoke about. Thank you