It is a cliché, I know, to have picked up knitting during the Covid-19 lockdown, but there you have it. I had had some prompting: My middle child has always been the crafty type and her excursions into the wonderful world of yarn had piqued my curiosity over the years. If I recall, she gave me a skein and needles and a few words of encouragement and off I went. The first hat I produced after weeks of work was a bit of a disaster, looking like something a “Game of Thrones” extra would have worn before getting his head chopped off. For some reason I kept it around.
Nevertheless, I persevered. One of the breakthrough moments early on in my knitting was that I was making cloth, not macramé. That was an important shift; up to that point, my handiwork was more a series of knots than knits, erstwhile boater that I am.
With practice, I got better, and, perhaps four hats into it, I had my first request — from a friend, then, honor of honors, from another one of my children, then from her boyfriend. At the moment, I am getting close to finishing his hat, a tweed number with two thin gray stripes. I may be developing a signature style, in fact, more beanie than ski cap.
Hats take me a good while to make; I can knit maybe two in a season before losing interest. Spring and summer are too warm for me to sit with a ball of yarn, plus there is always a long to-do list involving the boat once the ground thaws. I have visions of combining the two passions, though. How sweet it would be to be able to sail and knit at the same time, I think.