Guest Blogger - Thoughts from a knitters progeny

My mum has knitted for as long as I can remember, not that I remember actually seeing her knit until UNTIL she got into those blasted knitting machines. I must say that I definitely have HEARD her knit.

So mum asked me to write this guest blog, probably hoping in vain that I am as literate as my teachers have always suggested.

I think that it’s a good way to show you all what a fantastic knittum (knitting mum) Jussi really is, and also to say a little thank you.

My mum had me relatively young; she had a lot of support from some people, but no support from others, so she knitted us lovely things. From early on she instilled the value of independence. Funnily enough I was the most independent and fearless child in my classes up until I was 14. My mum was the one who made really cool looking jumpers that were really itchy, because of that I had more skivvies than I had siblings (actually a pretty fair number)

Mum didn’t knit much for us when we reached school, but she kept on being a bit quirky. My mum was the one who would take us to cafes when she got coffee, back when even Devonport didn’t know what a cafe was. Who listened to Julie London instead of Celine Dion and R.E.M instead of oh I don’t know, whatever bad music there was in the 90’s. I was the kid who had Tonka’s, and Littlest pet shop ponies instead of Barbie’s and those stupid smelly muffin dolls. (Yes, I really had no Barbie’s, yes they are not a necessity to your girl-child’s healthy upbringing, I mean, I’m straight, and even if I wasn’t, would that be a problem, hey?)

My mother invented M & M cookies! It wasn’t “Subway” or “Betty Crocker”. OK, I’m glad we have that one cleared up. No arguing otherwise or I may be forced to do some hurtin’

The funny trend I am noticing is that although mum has mellowed out now, the things I am writing are almost straight out of her mouth. Yes my mother was a bit of a raving feminist, hehe.

My mum loves black forest Cadburys and always had it; I think I can blame her for my BMI being over the healthy range. Other bad food habits include maccas! Hahahaha. When we moved to Auckland, mum and I never got much time to hang out together, so I got pretty lonely because there was no one else in our house who I got along with well. We started a little habit when she got a car, more specifically when she started working for WINZ, of getting two cheeseburgers on $1 Tuesdays at maccas, omg those were the days. Although mum isn’t here in NZ, I have made friends with girls who love maccas cheeseburgers to the same extent as me :D

Mum started knitting again when we lived in waihi, she made clothes for a shop there and I was always so proud to take my friends into the shop after school to show them the clothes my mum made. Whenever she sold something she was always so happy J

In short my mum has influenced everything in my life from my music (so so much, its insane) to my friends, my philosophies, interests, and really I must say she’s a big part of me turning my life on its head to study wine making – she did buy me the book that inspired me with her last $10.

I think she must be a little bit proud, to have a child who turned down a $30k scholarship and broke off a 4 year relationship to study something in a place she knew no one in and had never been to. Either that or she thinks I’m crazy.

The last thing mum did before letting me loose on the big wide world was teach me to knit. One long boring summer in Aussie I asked her to teach me and she did, yes I swore at her for hours, but eventually I took over and began to get it. It made me realise how endlessly patient she is, sure she had a wonderful calm daughter called Blaise, but she had two equally and oppositely temperamental daughters in Char and I. We’re three very lucky daughters, to get this mum whom no one else will ever get, and I think she’s a pretty lucky mum, we weren’t bad kids.