What did Grandma knit for you?

My grandmother used to knit (mum didn't). She believed in making things to last, so always made two of everything (one for me and one for my sister, who would inherit mine in time). They were made in different colours so my sister got a change when they were passed down.

What I remember most was that they were always made in indestructible BriNylon, in lurid primary colours. They were relatively plain, with maybe a cable up the middle of the front, and usually V necked. If my sister and I passed in a corridor the sparks from them could have started an inferno. They always, without fail, looked brand new when the next ones came along in a bigger size, but they were very rough on the skin.

I'm sure they are responsible for both my love of knitting and my insistence on using yarns in natural fibres /

I had a big, burly, builder boyfriend who used to knit.
He.made a lovely little coat and booties for his friends new baby.

My gran could crochet a matinee jacket without a pattern. I don’t remember her knitting though.

Neither of my Grans knitted, they worked hard in other ways, but one of Dad's sisters did.
For my first baby she made a knitted shawl out of very fine (2-3ply) wool. It was sort of triangular shape with a tied collar.
Must have taken her ages.

No, neither of my grandmother's knitted for me but one of them was a professional dressmaker and my mother was a skilled knitter and dressmaker.and both were stylish and elegant,

The result was that as a child, I always had a wardrobe of attractive clothes. I only had two complaints: that my mother did like to see her 3 daughters in a row, all in matching dresses. When there are 7 years between eldest and youngest, as oldest, the style of clothes I wore were always on the young side and she loved party dresses (all matching) in pastel colours, smocked panels down the front and puff sleeves and when you are 11 being seen in a dress like that, is embarrassing in the extreme.

My mum used to knit lovely little cardigans for my daughter, then we would go to the "material shop" to choose buttons for them.
It all sounds very quaint now.

My grandmothers didn’t knit. My lovely Mum was the family knitter. School cardigans, jumpers, baby garments etc. She was frustrated when her knitting skills diminished due to arthritis in her 60s. The last few months of knitting she did was a beautiful christening shawl and a variety of baby knitwear. My daughter was 13 at the time. My Mum wrapped it all up in tissue paper and packed it in a box with a letter and gave it to me to store for my daughter in the event she wouldn’t be around.

My daughter married 10 years later and we were heartbroken when her precious Grandma died 3 months before her wedding day. 2 years later when she was pregnant I gave her the box my Mum had left for her and a few tears were shed.
The christening shawl has been worn by all 4 of my grandchildren since then. I’ve wrapped it back up in tissue paper and boxed it with a letter ready for the first of my 4 grandchildren to open in the years to come.

Thisismyname - I love the story about the sewing machine!

...that’s ‘working class’....

Luckily my gran came from a real posh family and they had ‘servants’ ....we’re talking late 19c to the early 20c....so she never learned to knit or sew( no need). She married ‘down’ according her her family’s opinion , a commander in Royal Navy! Then her daughter ( my mum) married even farther down ( my dad).... so far off the scale socially, would now be considered ‘lair king class’ They were happy and gran came to live with us in our council estate in the latter years of her life. So I got no hand knits from gran..... but she taught me a few ‘upper crust’ secrets that have stood me in ‘good stead’ all my life. Especially the saying “all fur coat ,and no knickers”...her sayings still make me laugh, and I’ve no hand knitted memories to mar my love of her.

Oh sure. socks. i love them so much

Not very flattering, but my aunt and gran lived together and I couldn't tell them apart as a young child. Both could knit and crochet but Gran was elderly and I never saw her knit before she died when I was 10. My aunt, on the other hand, the most lovely lady I've ever known, was accomplished but old-fashioned. She made me a hat every year, usually white or yellow, not the loopy one shown, thank goodness, but always with knitted flowers on it and a huge ribbon bow. Ungrateful as I was, I took it off as soon as I was out of sight of the house on my way to school. She made lovely knitted slippers too, so cosy on our cold floors. I miss her smile.

I remember as a small child being forced to wear a vest that Nana had knitted and feeling totally humiliated. She was of a generation that sewed and knitted through necessity, not for pleasure and she obviously never lost that feeling.

My maternal grandmother was a knitter . She knitted me a beautiful soft angora bolero when I was little . I can also remember her knitting Aran cardigans for my 3 children in the 70s . My other grandmother was more of a sewer and in the late 50s a salesman came knocking with a sewing machine . She said she couldn’t afford it but he left it with her over the weekend for a trial . She rushed off to the local market for cotton fabric and ran me up 3 summer dresses before he came back for it on Monday

Nothing for me as well. My father's mother died when I was a baby and I don't know if she could knit. Mum's mother could knit, crochet, sew etc. but stopped doing anything once she became a widow. She was only 58 but she became a 'professional' old lady and expected everything to be done for her. My mother knitted and sewed for all of us as well as working part time.

This is an easy one. Nothing. My Gran on my mums side died when my Mum was 3, and my Grandmother on my Dads side never knitted, or did any handy work as far as I can remember. She died when I was 17.

I made that hat for both my daughters. I loved them (the hats and my daughters!).

My granny knitted all the time. The uncles got socks, with very fancy patterns. I got stockings! I needed a liberty bodice with suspenders so that I could wear them. This was in the 1950's. I think I was the only girl in the school with knitted stockings. My cousins and I also got jumpers, cardigans and hats. My mother also knitted, as do I and one of my DDs. Long may the tradition continue.

My maternal grandma didn't knit but she was a works canteen manageress, and she called in on her way home from work one day a week, aand always brought us a fruit pie she had baked - wonderful memories

Neither of my grandmas knitted anything for me (or anyone else). My mother knitted all my cardigans and jumpers. She also knitted a skirt with a matching jumper once in a peculiar tweedy brown wool with a banana yellow stripe round the bottom - it was itchy and saggy so I hated it, but had to wear it. Then there was the knitted bathing suit - UGH!
She also sewed and made some really nice clothes for me when I was a teenager as she went on a fashion course at the local technical college. I had a military style maxi coat, a black crepe jumpsuit, a suit with a short skirt and bomber jacket. She made my first formal evening dress and I loved it. She also made my first wedding dress, which wasn't to my taste and a huge cathedral veil - when I got married for the second time I made my own dress from a Bruce Oldfield Vogue pattern.

SueDonim

Nothing that I know of. Like Callistemon‘s, one of my GM’s died when I was four, the other had been dead for nearly 40 years by the time I arrived on the scene.

Its’s always been a case of what you’ve never had, you never miss, for me until lately. Now I’m a gran myself, and as I watch my GC grow and developed their personalities, I wonder what my GP’s were like and whether any of their characteristics have passed through the generations.

I never really missed my grandparents because I never got to know them but this thread is making me wish I had.

I do have a couple of photos and that is all.

My Grandma made me cardigans, both as a child and as an adult - but would happily make me anything, either knitted or crochet, if I bought the wool! She also taught me to knit and crochet, so in later life, I made my own! I have kept the last cardigan she ever made me (It's shapeless now, made in white wool in a lacy pattern, and with short sleeves). She passed away when I was 29.

lemongrove neither of my nannas were knitters. I don't know who taught my mother because she was an accomplished knitter and made all our winter woollies as well as making most of our clothes.

My Nan always knitted a cardigan for me for the new school term in September.They were always plain with two stripes around the bottom,When they were buttoned up the stripes never met in a line.She taught me to knit when I was about three and I've done it ever since, mostly baby clothes or children's Aran's.

My Nan's knitting was hit and miss. I hated the school jumpers, one arm always being a slightly different green than the rest of the jumper, due to not buying enough wool in the first place. The best ever, and I still have it for sentimental reasons, was a very 60s fashionable bolero.