A tale of two thumbs

When I began knitting, I knit mostly for myself. I felt had to learn how to knit before I felt that the things I made were worthy of giving away. I've been knitting (obsessively!) for about 7 years now, and lately I've knit more for other people than I have for myself. I love seeing the expression on the person's face when I give them something handmade. Knitted gifts are a rarity nowadays. I like to knit patterns with interesting details: cables, lace, colourwork. However, sometimes the simplest thing is the most appreciated.

My friend Mark is the Mennonite chaplain at the University of Manitoba. I've spent a fair amount of time there over the course of my two degrees. It's well known in the "Menno office" that I'm a knitter. One day Mark came to me and said he had worn through the thumbs of a pair mittens that his mother had made for him. Those mittens were especially important to him because his mother could no longer knit and therefore she couldn't repair them or knit him new ones. He wanted to know, could they be fixed?

Well if there's one thing I love to knit, it's mittens. Mittens in are an essential item in Manitoba and no friend of mine would have cold thumbs if I could help it! I said I could probably attach brand new thumbs in an hour or two! Mark was ecstatic!

So one afternoon I brought yarn and needles to school with me and attached some new thumbs. This is the response I got from Mark:

Such a simple thing, but I made his day and I was happy do to it. He said now the mittens were even more special now because they were made by his mother and fixed by the "queen of knitting", as he put it.

In this throw-away world, it feels great to know that some people still value hand-made items!