Hand-me-down handicraft

I decided that I would like to knit Carla something before she's too enormous (i.e. whilst the project is still fairly small in size). I am a slow knitter and if I am not careful, she will have outgrown the knitted item before I finish it.

Whilst struggling with a new method of casting on and getting a bit confused about whether I was on a knit or a purl (I'm making a dress in moss stitch), I drifted off into thinking about the people who have knitted for me in the past. As a result of my daydreaming, I have had to undo half a row of knitting, oops.

So, have The Matriarchs handed down their talents for handicraft?

Mother is a fantastic knitter, though she does complain that she knits too tightly. She is also a great seamstress and made me all kinds of great clothes as a child as well as a Clothkits rag-doll. (www.clothkits.co.uk)

Maternal Grandmother (who we dubbed Granny Manchester or Granny Low Road) is an accomplished seamstress and particularly talented at embroidery. However, she is not a knitter. She once told me this story:

During the war people knitted squares which were collected and then sewn together to make blankets for the troops. At this point, Granny Manchester was a medical student in London. She started knitting along with the rest of her friends and had one of these squares in her bag at a lecture one day. The girl sitting next to her saw the knitting and took it up and asked if she could continue it under the desk during the lecture. To my Grandmother's surprise, not only could the girl knit accurately and at great speed without ever looking down at the work, but she turned to Granny when the lecture was over and the knitted square finished and said, "You'd dropped a couple of stitches in the third and fifth rows, so I've picked them up for you and finished this off." I don't think Granny ever bothered knitting again.

Granny Bysea (she lived by the sea), my paternal Grandmother, did knit and I remember some lovely jumpers and cardigans that she made for us as children. I suspect she was a dab hand with a sewing machine too.

So, where does that leave me? Basically, I think that I have inherited my inability to knit from my maternal Grandmother and an obsession with neatness from my paternal Grandmother, which means that when I do try to knit, I end up being incredibly slow and spending more time undoing untidy work than making stitches!

If I ever finish the moss stitch dress for Carla, I will post a picture! For anyone needing knitting advice, I highly recommend www.knittinghelp.com if you can't get your Mum on the telephone.