To no one’s great surprise, I’m sure, I did essentially no knitting on my trip, despite the giant bag of stuff I took with me. I did make those Humanoidish mitts on my departure flight, but the knitting I did after I landed was limited to teaching my 5-year-old niece how to knit!

She asked if I’d teach her and I said we could certainly try, and that if she wasn’t big enough to do it yet we’d try again another time. She was completely fine with that, and proceeded to wow us all by getting it very quickly. Of course, each stitch took her awhile to complete and she would tire out after a couple of rows. But she kept coming back to it, and over the course of a few days, with me knitting the first few stitches of each row, we made about a 4-inch swatch (with a color change in the middle). I bound it off before I left and she is very proud of it. And I of her.

But there was more. This was something of a mini family reunion, with relatives ranging from 2 years old to 87, and I thought potholder looms might be fun for everyone. Something the grown-ups could help the kids with, and get into themselves, and that it would be something to keep our hands busy while we all sat around and yammered. So I had two looms sent from Amazon, along with a mountain of loops, and it really was fun. There were a good dozen or so made (or in the works) by the time I left. And best of all, everyone will go home with this funny little souvenir of our time together.

.