A few weeks ago I was photographing “stuff” for a friend’s website and I photographed a basket of knitting wool, prompting a piece about how I love the clickety-clack of knitting needles and how I wished I could do this lovely thing. My Mum responded saying that she’d given up knitting after learning to crochet but with arthritic hands that was no longer possible so she’s just given up this sort of handicraft altogether.

I decided to prompt her into doing some more knitting so bought her some wool for her birthday. She’s received the wool and has been knitting and purling away for a few days and produced this lovely little bonnet for the little daughter of some friends of ours.

Rather than post the bonnet directly to them, she has sent it to me so I can see the fruits of her labour and my gift. I will now take the bonnet to the recipient over the coming weeks/days (when I get a moment).

This design is the same design that she knitted for Jan and I when we were little – we can’t quite remember (though I’m sure if the conversation had been three-way, including my sister, we’d know because her memory is encyclopaedic) whether mine was red and Jan’s was blue or vice versa. We both think that the red one was mine though neither of us (Mum or I) can be completely sure.

When we were small, space invaders hadn’t been invented so the similarity couldn’t have been noted, though now I do see a sort of “prediction” of the things that would obsess a nation 15 years after we wore our bonnets.

Anyway, all of this speculation aside, my Mum seems delighted to have revised her knitting skills and now intends to make more of these bonnets to give to charity shops to sell. I reckon that’s as good an outcome from a birthday pressie as you can possibly get. Good on ya Mum and glad you liked the gift.