SATs and knitting

It's time for my daughter to take the SATs.  I can't believe she's 17!  She's so grown up, and beautiful, and tall.  It's one of those milestones that has me looking back on her life.  And her life in knitting.

While I was pregnant, my mother-in-law crocheted her a beautiful baby blanket in a soft but sturdy cotton.  She was a winter baby, and it became a staple of our day to wrap her in the blanket in the car seat.

When she was still a baby, my childhood friend Lisa started knitting for her.  There were strawberry caps and lemonhead hats.  She was adorable in all of them.  A happy and busy baby, she liked to show off her hats to passers by as we would shop and run errands.  She would "vogue" for anyone willing to watch.

At about 7 she wanted to learn to knit (I guess I made it look like fun?) and started knitting up thin little ribbons of knitting that she would use as collars on her stuffed animals.  This phase lasted for a couple of years.  Build-a-Bear animals, Beanie Babies, and even Elmo were very fashionable in their collars and scarves, and most of them involved glitter.

At 12 she wanted to participate in clothing some teddy bears given out by a local charity.  She made scarves and belts, and a couple of teddy bear sized baby blankets.  She considered herself a knitter.  The bears were adorable in their little outfits, and I was very proud.  She had taken to "borrowing" my fair isle mittens and earflap hats, and that spurred me to make her a knitwear wardrobe of her own.  Middle school being what it is, we quickly ended up with single mittens, missing hats, and many requests for "one more pair.  I won't lose them.  I promise."  And I knitted her several more pairs.

At 14 she started getting into the scarf craze, and picked out some yarns for me to make her a fashion scarf.  Shimmering ribbon yarn became a scarf, which was worn twice before it was declared "too hot" to wear all day.  I'm grateful she chose colors that I wear, because I've enjoyed it ever since.

At this point, she's not into knitwear or knitting.  She likes military-influenced jackets over trendy t-shirts, and goes mitten, scarf and hat free most days.  If there is a hat, it's a canvas cadet cap. 

As she moves on in her life, I still have many of the things that she knitted, and that I knitted for her.  It's funny to me how each piece brings to life a chunk of our history.  Vivid memories flood back.  And it makes me wonder what she'll want me to knit next.  Stuff for college?  A wrap for a party dress?  Will I have to wait until she needs baby blankets?  I don't know, but thinking about this knitted bond, past and future, makes me smile.