Generations Connect Through Stitches

On Saturday I took my daughter to work with me. She enjoys the hour commute as it gives her a chance to watch for horses as we get to chat about various things happening in her life. On this day she was excited because this would be the day she would be officially introduced to the world of knitting.

No more cheating with a machine; she was going to learn how to knit officially -- with the two pointed sticks she had watched her own mother struggle with.  On her lap was her new crochet kit: a container that looked much like a fishing tackle box but rather than being filled with fish hooks, weights & such, inside she had her yarn, a few crochet hooks, and her new knitting needles.  She couldn't wait to get started.  I could tell this because there was no usual "official horse sighting count" when we pulled into the store's parking lot.  Or was it because she nearly mowed me down while running to the store entrance?  Does it matter?  She was excited, and I was excited for her.  Maybe she'd be the one to take after her Grandmother's passion for knitting.  Maybe she'd be the one to hold her Grandmother's needles to make them work their magic again.

She helped me set up for my first class and then we sought out the store manager.  I left my daughter in her charge and went to teach the Crochet 101 class.  Afterwards I found my daughter calmly holding the knitting needles, yarning over, maneuvering the needles this way and that as she turned the loops on the needles into knitted fabric.  She looked up and smiled at me.  "Look Mom," she exclaimed, "I knitted another row!"

I was proud of my daughter; she was doing well with her new fiber adventure.  Liz, the store manager, said she was one of the quickest children she's seen take to the knitting concept, thinking that it has a lot to do with my daughter's exposure to crochet.  I was one proud mother!

Later, while on the way home, she knitted many more rows and said after we passed horse farm after horse farm, "You know Mom, the ride will be more interesting next time.  Many foals will be born and running in the paddocks with their Moms, and I'll have a lot of knitting done to show Liz!"

When she gets home from school today I plan on discussing the story book, Sunny's Mittens by Robin Hansen, that we had purchased for her last year when we visited Lake Placid.  And, I'll show her the sweater Grandmother had knitted for me when I was a child -- that one day I know she'll fit into.  I think it's one thing to look at a photograph and hear stories of that person's life, but I think it helps us to connect at a deeper level if we're able to touch that person's hand-work and realize the love they put into their stitches.  I'm sure it will inspire my daughter to keep practicing her knitting, and to help her connect to a Grandmother she never knew.