Surpassing the Master

My wonderful sister, Esther, visited with our mother the other day and decided to share with her my most recent post.  Esther loved the bobble fringe I knitted and thought our mother would get a real kick out of seeing it.

Over the last few months, as I've posted more advanced projects, I wondered if I should show my mother my blog. After all, as you know she IS the master knitter in my life and perhaps of all the people in my family, she would understand how much progress I've made through all my years of knitting.  But what you have to know is that my mother ... well, she's of another generation, and while many people of her age have mastered the internet and even have blogs of their own, my mother is still living in the 20th century.  How would I be able to explain how blogs work (after all, I don't really know how!) and how would I be able to explain why I want to share my knitting and yarn love with people outside of my immediate circle?  And ultimately, how would I be able to explain why people even read my blog?  So, whenever I thought again about showing her Project: Stash, those questions would pop into my mind and I would put off the idea until another time.

And now to what I think is the amazing part of my little story. When Esther did show our mother my blog, she was fascinated. Sure, it's written by me and it's about me. But at the very heart of my blog is our shared love of knitting. After all, my mother's talent and skill are aspects of her that I deeply admire and am envious of. My mother's talent and skill are what I aspire to. She asked Esther questions, commented on the photos, found my mistakes, but in all that, she said something to Esther that can only be translated into English (from our Chinese dialect) as akin to "Evelyn has surpassed the master."


It's not true -- I really haven't -- but for anyone who has someone in your life who has taught and inspired you, I know you get this (and thanks, sis!)