Knit, Purl, Get the Girl
Disclaimer: the above image is for entertainment purposes only
So if you’ve been keeping up with my monthly blog posts, you’ll know that I talk a lot about my mom and how she inspired me to start fortuknit. If you haven’t read the backstory yet, I won’t spoil it for you. Check out my earlier posts when you have a moment. But maybe I got a bit of the knitting bug from my dad, too!
I recently learned through 23andMe® that, “based on genetics and other factors, [I am] more likely to be able to match a musical pitch. While matching pitch comes naturally for some, it's almost impossible for others. Either way, genetics plays a role in the ability to match a musical pitch.” And now I wonder…could I also have a knitting gene?
Exercising my genetic pitch at my Spring Cello Recital
For those who know my dad, they know that he is full of stories from his past lives. This particular one (that he loves to tell whenever he sees me whip out my needles) had me in stitches! Like so many elementary school love stories, this one begins with a boy and his crush. That boy is my dad…and his crush? Well, we’ll just call her GG. Apparently, my dad really liked GG—so much so that he went very much out of his way to impress her. One day, in class, during some downtime, GG was working on a little project at her desk. Whatever she was busy doing piqued young Sonny’s interest so much that his curiosity forced him to ask her what she was doing. Now, according to my dad, GG was…you guessed it! Knitting a blue sweater!
My dad in one of his childhood school photos
This is where the story takes a fun twist (not at all like when your stitches gets twisted). In an effort to impress GG, my dad took a serious interest in her handmade project. (Even as I tell this story now, I imagine my dad behaving a lot like “Dean” in Saladin K. Patterson’s version of The Wonder Years in my head. Textbook elementary school flirting tactics.) So, in that moment, GG taught my dad to knit. Is anyone else wondering why these kids had so much free time in class?? Anyway, it would seem that my dad picked up the skill pretty quickly because he offered to take the project home and work on it for her. I couldn’t believe it! He really went to great lengths to make an impression on this girl.
Later that evening, as I picture it, my dad sat in his room finishing off a portion of little GG’s blue sweater. Now, I don’t know the final outcome of the story. How did the sweater look? Was GG impressed? Was it enough to win her heart? Did my dad take her out for ice cream that weekend (or maybe a tropical sorbet!)? What did my grandparents say when they saw little Sonny knitting his way to a girl’s heart?
Well, as it turns out, my grandmother was also very much into the fiber arts. She would make beautiful crocheted doilies and other items. I only learned this just recently! So again I ask, could it be that I—that we—have a knitting gene? I think it’s pretty cool that I have this amazing thing in common, this almost intuitive connection, with both my parents and now at least one of my grandparents. Maybe I’ll pass the gene down, too!
I’m not sure what GG is doing now. Perhaps she still knits in her spare time. My dad isn’t knitting anymore, but I’m sure I’ll have lots more stories like this one to look forward to. And in the meantime, I’ll keep knitting while I wait for the brains at 23andMe® to pin down which gene is responsible for knitting, crocheting, and the love of beautiful fibers and colorful yarn!