A favourite in your kit?

Have you inherited any knitting materials?

Since I started knitting, I've inherited materials from my mother, grandmother, friends' mothers and family friends.

🧶 Receiving these boxes includes a moment with history. Their story.

The boxes can remain unopened for weeks, as I acclimatize myself to their presence, and wait for the right moment to read the story. The boxes are handed to me, I sit down, and take one item at a time. One in the right-hand pile, another in the left-hand pile, and the next in the middle pile. Some items, like the needles, have worn ends. You can see the thickness of the different materials. Others are still in their original packaging, with the price tag: CAD 0.75 for a set of 5 double-pointed needles. Beyond the cost of these items at the time of purchase, they've seen kilometers of yarn, stitch creations, colors, different fibers. Knit and purls. Dropped stitches. Yarn overs.

🧶 When I touch these needles, these markers, the story continues, I tell myself.

Some will be discarded as unusable, broken or added to my collection. My fiber museum! For others, like my grandmother's needles, they're in one of my many (!) bags for a cardigan project.

In all the hours I've spent sorting boxes, my hands have touched accessories whose feel I love, their utility, their uniqueness... I'll never know their story completely. However, one of them is important to me. Touching and opening my grandmother's needle case is a moment... where the story is renewed each time.

Have a great time with your knitting.

Caroline