More Knitting History

A couple of posts ago, I talked about my mother teaching knitting in the backroom of the local five and dime in my hometown of Greensburg, and about being The Resource.

Wisest Sister commented on that post.

"FYI your mother gave knitting lessons at our home before I was born(Yes, even then!) She also sold yarn. The tatting edge that she added to a pillowcase was payment from a lady who did not want her Mr. to be able to criticize "wasteful" spending on lessons. Mom also knitted a skirt for herself...and later used that yarn for a jacket for me. (Yep, she "unknitted" her skirt so I could have something special. Love, WS"

Well, I didn’t know that! Imagine. I knew that Momma was very keen on the early version of ‘reduce, recycle, reuse’, which was ‘use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without’, but she thrifted yarn?

My mother, again, goes before us! What we think is new…

So I remarked to Wisest Sister…tell me more. I say to her,

"I have a little knitted outfit in my hope chest, a skirt and vest of tweedy looking yarn, grey and cream and black. I wore it in kindergarten. The story I remember is that it was worn by the ‘Big Girls’ before me. And Eldest Daughter wore it when she was a wee tyke."

Well, apparently…

"The knitted outfit is the one that was Mom's skirt! My memory misfired that it was something else, but your memory helps me. (That’s what sisters do!)"

And here it is…

A skirt and vest, all grey/black/cream tweedy...and wool...scratchy on a five year old's skin!


Buttons up the front...with reinforced buttonholes...ten of them!

Ribbing around the bottom of the vest...

Slits about one inch deep for 'belt loops' for the ribbon belt...all the way around.

Is that not just something?

There is some discoloration, and some moth holes. The FO has to be sixty years old, the yarn older. (I feel certain that the moth damage is from long ago, and that in the hope chest and in the dry Colorado climate it is safe from further damage.)

We may not be EZ and Meg Swanson, but we sisters, well...we have our own family history of knitting.

And I'm thinking it's a strong one, just like us...