School Knit

Once upon a time, long, long ago, I blogged about knitting. Truth be told, it was the knitting that got me into the blogging. My return to the needles in my late 20s saw me seeking out new techniques online, which is how I discovered the knitting blog, which led me to the sewing blog, the mummy blog, the any-kind-you-will blog. And eventually I was inspired to start my own blog.

So the knitting did beget the blog, and the blog, in turn, did beget the knitting. I knitted for the love of it, and to feed the growing obsession with yarns and patterns and the finish line. I knitted to clothe and warm other people's babies, and then my own babies, and, ever so occasionally, and far less successfully, me. The blog, meanwhile, was the impetus to keep going, to record, to show off, to share.

And then the blog led me to selling my knitting. And it was wonderful and grand and all things good. But all other knitting ceased. My children grew out of the last of my handknits and nothing has replaced them. No cardigans, no jumpers, no core-warming vests, no funny stripy leg warmers. 

My Lola started kindergarten last year and I couldn't bring myself to dress her in the standard issue acrylic V-neck. While she wore through a few fleecy hoodies, I got my hands on some superwash wool and found a pattern. Winter arrived, and left, and still she wore the hoodies.

This year I was determined to get it done. My hands weren't used to knitting on smaller needles. I wasn't used to reading an actual pattern. I worked at it in bursts, between the hats. I relaxed as we languished in a long, not-very-cold autumn. But when winter hit good and proper, I knew I had to finish.

My big girl, no longer a kindergartener, but a first-grader with a gappy smile and an obsession with books, finally has a handknit cardigan to keep her warm in the schoolyard. Now, back to the hats...

Pattern: Granny's Favourite by Georgie Hallam

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in Navy

Ravelry notes here.