a simple yarn

I wonder if knitting is genetic?

As I watch Nine-Year-Old-Daughter-Kate pick up and knit, as it were, I wonder if there’s some type of knitting gene? Is it hereditary? Well, in her case, it’s more nurture than nature, as her Siberian birth will attest. But what was I doing when I was nine? Can’t remember what I did yesterday, let alone what my childhood hobbies were! Did I have an interest in knitting? Horses, yes. Nancy Drew, of course. But knitting? I don’t think so….or I think I’d have more finished projects on the list.

I vaguely remember my grandmother, Daisy, trying once to teach me this gentle art, but my being left-handed and short-tempered did not make for a successful outcome. And so, if there is a knitting gene, it certainly lay dormant in me for many years…..over thirty. But coming to a new land, a land flowing with sheep and fleece—so I thought—in my fortieth year I asked Knitting-Mentor-And-Fibre-Friend-Holly to teach me to knit. And what a full four fibre years it’s been!

Yet I hearken back to the legacy, latent though it may have been, modeled for me by my grandmothers and me ma….

(Okay, I don’t actually call my mother, ‘me ma,’ and I know that sounds terribly and stereotypically ‘Oirish,’ but you know, I truly hear Dublin-city children make that reference and it usually brings a ‘how very cool’ smile to my face. I had to put it in here somewhere!)

Now, let me ‘hearken back’ to what I was saying…

‘….I hearken back to the legacy…..’ and the material representation of that legacy is found in this treasure, the collected aluminum knitting needles passed down to me from those who had used them well.

I love the cheery click that comes in creating each stitch, which no other needle material can duplicate! And I find myself looking for colourful needles which coordinate with the yarn I’m using, hoping they’ll be the correct size.

So, on this Non-Hallmark-Event-Cuz-It’s-Not-Mother’s-Day-For-Many-Months-Yet, I just have to say to thanks to the women in my family for passing on a wonderful heritage.