Recently a younger knitting friend who is about to start a family told me about how delighted she was that a little girl she looks after has become fascinated with my friends knitting. She has been completed charmed by this and spoke about how she looks forward to sharing her love of knitting with her own future children. We ended up talking about the knitting myth that knitting skips a generation. I've heard this in relation to other skills sets as well.
In my case I don't really believe it as I am at minimum, a third generation knitter. My local guild has several sets of mother-daughter attendees and we also have one three generation group that I enjoy seeing together every month at the meeting.
Perhaps it's because I no longer have any knitters left in my life who are related to me that I often think about the legacy of knitting. As a teacher it's critically important to me to pass my skills and the love of the craft on to others. It's interesting to me that over the years I have taught a number of new knitters who decided to learn after the passing of a family member who also knit.
How about you, was it legacy that drove your desire to knit?
For me it wasn't legacy that drove me to knit. It was the fact that my sister refused to be my own personal knitter so I had to learn myself. My mother also knits and so did my grandmother.
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