Annie Modesitt of www.modeknit.com may be known to many of you as a fabulous teacher, or an amazing designer, or the author of a blog you never miss, but to me she is the person who “birthed” a very special knitter—Katie, age 5. Every grandparent thinks, of course, that their grandchild is the cutest and smartest and Katie is those, but she is also “saucy”—which I just love. This weekend her mother, Laura, was in Minneapolis and met with Annie. Laura asked her what is a good age to learn and Annie said that five was perfect. She had a way of explaining how to turn a piece of yarn into a woven doll table cloth (which is what Katie decided her project was) with terms for the stitches that include “mamas” and “babies” and “mammas taking a nap”.
I heard about the lesson via phone and my initial and micro-seconds long reaction was “Aw, now I can’t teach her.” Actually I know that I am a horrible teacher. I never even could teach her mother and had to get her to go to our LYS for a lesson. One tiny thing about getting older is knowing your weaknesses and if Katie had had to rely on my teaching abilities she would never have taken up the needles.
The whole family met in Milwaukee to celebrate Father’s Day. Kent was so happy to have all 3 kids home since our California son was back for a wedding. When Katie got to the very fancy restaurant the first thing she wanted to do was to show me. She was doing her “Knitting in Public” a day late but with much enthusiasm. Actually she wouldn’t put it down and I heard words that were music to my ears, “Can’t I knit just a few more stitches?”
And so the art of the needle and yarn goes on. I can’t thank Annie enough. As for Katie, I whispered to her, “Next time you come over I will take you to Mimi’s secret yarn room.” The look on her face makes me think a new knitter is born.
July 10th, 2008 at 10:26 am
What a great girl and terrific story! Hope Katie has a lifetime filled with creative arts.