Friday, December 12, 2014

Knitters Know

Knitters know. We knitters know a hand knit item when we see one. That is just part of the trade. I see tons of hats at winter time, and I always can pick out a handmade one. Us knitters call it “spotting a handknit in the wild”. And a handmade hat can tell me a lot about the wearer of the hat. For example, I saw this guy at the bar one night. From the front, he was a big burly guy, with an out of control beard, he was doing shots, and may have been yelling a few obscenities. I was just about to write this guy off, and he turned his head. He was wearing an amazing handmade crochet tam hat. The detail was brilliant. Of course, being the shy person I am, I walked over and said “I love your hat.” He quickly replied, “Thanks, my friend made this for me.” Obviously, I already knew this, but this told me so much about burly bearded man. It first told me that he appreciates handmade things. That he sees the value in the time and effort that went into his hat. He knows that he could have bought a hat, but he wears this one because he knows that it is worth more than anything that could be bought from Target. Second of all and the point, I know that somewhere there is a knitter who loves burly bearded man. Someone out there that cares enough about him and thought enough of him to make him this hat. The hat was too awesome to make for someone you don’t care about. And if one of my “people” thought this much of him, I must have missed something in my initial assessment of him. My favorite thing about winter is seeing the pictures that I get of people wearing the things I made them. I love the idea of when these people are out in the cold world, I am keeping them warm and protecting them. These people, wearing things that I made them, are going about their daily lives without a notion. Unbeknownst to them, they come across a knitter or two. And that knitter or two, looks at them and knows that someone somewhere loves this person and finds them worthy of a handknit. That brings us to this morning, when I walked into the kitchen and saw Justin’s black hat. I made him this hat right after we got married 4 years ago. It was the 1st thing that I made, that he wore. I have seen that hat leave many a cold morning, and I always felt a little better because I knew at least his ears were warm. After 4 winters of working, wearing, and washing, it finally met its match, a little bleach spot. Just as I was about to toss this old hat in the trash, I thought about when I made it, how happy I was when he wore it, and how many times he has worn this symbol of love into the world for other knitters to know. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t throw this well-worn hat away, so I held it for a minute, shed a tear, and stuffed into a drawer. Yes, there is another black hat already on the needles...

1 comment:

  1. this is quite thoughtful and sweet! I love the what you have made for me!!

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