If I want to pass heirlooms down to my grandkids, nieces and nephews, I'm going to have to knit more than socks and hats right now!

Gorgeous pants- she looks so cute in them. Fantastic that they've survived so well.

I've just posted about some baby clothes that my grandmother made too- sewn, not knitted- so I can relate to the thrill of the connection back to a past time, and another generation. I think when you make things yourself (be it knitting or sewing) you appreciate the work and skill and thought so much more.

I don't think I make things with the intention of them being heirlooms, but it's a wonderful thought that they might.. one day..

Bonjour!

My name's Chelsey, and I found your blog through the Clapotis pattern on Knitty. I haven't done it yet, but I want to.

Anyway, I'm a college student, double majoring in french and english and a compulsive knitter.

Just thought I'd introduce yourself.

The pants are such an awesome and unique heirloom, and your baby's just adorable!

Very cute pants! And that Elmer Fudd hat just makes me smile!

Every kid should have a set of red knit pants. I've knit one item that has already become an heirloom for a family other than mine.

When my middle son was in kindergarten his teacher's husband passed away after heart surgery, a year later she remet a childhood sweet heart & eventually they decided to marry. I knit her a white mohair shawl with a blue glass bead border as a wedding present, she wore it for the ceremony. They both have grown up children & the shawl has wrapped every family baby since at their christening. I hope it goes to alot more weddings.

Kate, I love your designs, and I think Tadpole is the cutest little one I've seen since my grandchildren were born!

Donna Wingfield

I'm trying to get better with my finishing so that I can have things to give to my children later on. I found a bunch of things my mom had made for us when we were kids and her finishing was impeccable. So, I've made a blanket and a sweater so far for Max, we'll see how well they last. :)

PS. Thanks for your well wishes.. I hope someday that we can get Tadpole and Max together. Who knows what could happen? *grin*

Oh, usually I "just knit" but sometimes I pull out all the stops and knit as if the county fair judges are going to turn the piece inside out. I love the red pants. My late mother in law knitted some quite similar from an old pattern for my first born about 20 years ago. They were the most wonderful, easy to wear things that both of my boys ended up wearing over their regular pants when they weather was cold. So much better than stiff commercial snow pants1 We lived in NY, not far from Quebec so I know what you're going through. The calendar may say "Spring" but the thermometer says "winter."

Those are some lovely pants she's got there. I think heirlooms must have a lot to do with intention and love.

Well, I just knit. But, my standards of finishing are kind of high so I'm thinking some of my stuff will be around for awhile. Tadpole is just getting cuter all the time.

Yarn... and the memory it holds..... so I met you at the bon Marche and you had tadpole in your tummy and before we had a big ol' meringue with my sweet heart.. you guided me toward some soft cotton yarn the colors of a paper flower bouquet.. and now across the world I am crocheting this yarn into a way cool baby blanket and every time I pick it up,I think of you and how gorgeous your daughter is. and how yarn, like song or a madeleine, can hold memories forever.

Only once have I tried to knit an heirloom.
It's a dress, sized up from a size 2 (largest the pattern had) to a 6, in Baby Ull.
About three inches in, I decided that one of my daughters had BETTER have kids -- and a girl too, because by gum this dress will be handed down!
Both girls wore it, and loved it, and I had to fight them to let me launder it.
It still looks lovely...
So if they do have daughters, I'll hand it down....

Wow - you get a lot of commenters. That's great! So - the pants. They are awesome. And I would be so psyched if (in all your free time), you would write up the pattern and post it for sale on your knitting patterns page! It was great great great to talk with you the other day and keep in touch. I hope things are going well (better).

Aw! That is so cute and sweet! I would never think to knit heirlooms... it's an interesting idea, though. I'm just hoping that some of the things I've made my daughter will hold up until the next kid.

Those pants are so cute and they look completely fresh. Not old at all. I've never tired to knit an heirloom. I just knit.

I intend to knit things that will just be worn, but then I never let the kids wear them for real they'll get stained or something.

Inadvertent heirlooms, if you will . . .

I have one knitted heirloom, made by my mom: it is the dress I wore at my baptism. Actually, with knitting being stretchy and all and me not being a terribly large child, I also wore it on my first communion. At the time I hated it because all the other little girls had lace and ruffles and veils, but now I think it was really cool.

I know my knitting skills aren't up to it now, but I like to think I'll knit an heirloom one day.

So cute! Love that they were passed down- even more special.

I guess the only heirloom I have knit is my wedding shawl- I hope to pass that down someday. :)

Wow, she looks just like you. Those pants are great, when I have kids, I'm going to make sure they all have handknit red pants.

I'm a little frightened of the idea of knitting an heirloom on purpose. What if that means I leave someone with a gift they can't use without worrying too much or feeling horrid if there's a stain? I think it's nicer when things end up that way -- I have a "train sweater" which wore well, and was worn a lot. When my son has kids some day, I'll pass it on. I have a sweater my husband's grandmother knit for him. It's precious, but it's not a museum piece.

I suspect that the best heirlooms are like the best memories -- not accidents, but not too intentional either.

The only heirloom type thing that I've done was my daughter's christening dress (pictured somewhere in my Jan. 1, 2006 post). It's just not an everyday type of item. I hope that the other items that I make & give away are thoroughly used until they're either passed on or worn out.

I don't try to knit heirlooms, because I want my kids to enjoy wearing stuff without me saying, "STAY OUT OF THE DIRT!" or something silly. But it would be nice if these sweaters and hats and mittens were around years from now. I'm gonna think about this one some more.... :)

I have (not knitted by me) a fabulous shetland baby shawl knitted by my husband's grandmother! It really belongs to my stepson AJ. Apparently she knit them for all her great grandchildren (she died before our son was born). My oldest step son's mother unfortunately washed and dried his shawl with the laundry (you can imagine the results), and realised her folly too late. I will look after AJs until I feel he'll appreciate it (it does have some holes that I'm too nervous about trying to fix) and look after it. I did knit AJ's daughter a shetland shawl, not in beautiful shetland yarn but in some soft but easy wash yarn from Walmart. It knitted up beautifully - whether it will last for years, I don't know. It isn't treated like an heirloom, but has been used a lot, and therein lies the challenge. Do we wish these items, knitted lovingly, to be stashed away, or to be used with love? We also live in a "disposable", "easy care" age and have to add those facts into the equation.
Incidentally my bother, sisters and I all used to wear leggings like Tadpole's (what a sweetie). They had a special name, something like jodpurs (spelling) but not that. Do they have elastic that goes under the foot? I always think of them as Christopher Robin pants, not from the Pooh books by A.A. Milne but from the "When we were very young" and "Now we are six" books. I'm sure there must have been a pattern.
Janet up in Yellowknife

What a cutie and those pants are great!!

I think I am a ways a way from heirloom knitting...maybe one day though.

Those are adorable pictures! ADORABLE!

I haven't sat down to try for heirloom status with my knitting, especially with baby items. I still just make things out of cotton or acrylic for babies because babies leak. I think one of the baby blankets I made for a coworker attained Woobie status, though.

I knew my dad's mom was a knitter/crocheter, but by the time I came by, she no longer did any of it. My maternal grandma was crocheting afghans when I was young, but didn't mention knitting - until I started. She told me about argyle socks she made for Grandpa, and they were two different lengths, but he wore them proudly anyway.

What gets me is the way she (and others) would say, "Oh, I'm not any good. All I ever made was a pair of argyle socks."

To be honest, I haven't gotten that far yet. I'm sure I'm able to knit argyle socks at this point, but how can someone think that the ability to knit socks is trivial?

"skills of our parents hands are somehow passed on to us"

I completely agree with Rachel H on that point. I've always made things...mostly textile related, but never completely understood why I was drawn to those materials and techniques. Many years ago, the Ontario Geneological Society held a conference that included an art exhibit. They were looking for textiles works that relate family history. When I started having conversations with family members it became clear that EVERY member of my family, as far back as anyone can remember has done some kind of handwork. So my piece for the exhibit became a tribute to that...the one thing that was a literal common thread through time. I was able to include some of my mother's weaving...my grandmother's smocking...a piece of my grandfather's handknitted scratchy yellow sweater (my only clear memories of him have him wearing it). It became a monument to where I had come from and a very clear sign that I am doing exactly what I was meant to do.

For my kids? I do try hard to make things that are solidly constructed of good wool and will wear well - as for remaining pristine heirlooms, probably only a few of the newborn outfits will do that. My kids play pretty hard. I would love for the sweaters to be passed down, but I make them to be worn and loved in everyday life.

My mother her mother both knit, but I wasn't interested in learning when both were alive to teach me as my Mum died when I was seventeen and my Grandma when I was twenty-four. I picked it up when my son was born and it became important to me to be able to carry on the tradition of knitting. (Since them I've become just that little bit obsessed. Ahem.)

I've only knit one thing with the possibility of it being an heirloom actually in mind. A Debbie Bliss baby blanket - the one with the alphabet in lace stitches - knit in Baby Cashmerino for my nephew's Christening. For my niece a few years before I'd given a charm bracelet including silver charms I knew had belonged to Mum and Grandma, but I didn't have anything tangible to pass down to a boy, so I really felt I needed to knit. In the note I wrote him to go with it, I explained my belief that the skills of our parents hands are somehow passed on to us, and that in this way, both the Grandmother and Great-Grandmother who would have loved him and covered him in knits were part of the blanket too.

My mother her mother both knit, but I wasn't interested in learning when both were alive to teach me as my Mum died when I was seventeen and my Grandma when I was twenty-four. I picked it up when my son was born and it became important to me to be able to carry on the tradition of knitting. (Since them I've become just that little bit obsessed. Ahem.)

I've only knit one thing with the possibility of it being an heirloom actually in mind. A Debbie Bliss baby blanket - the one with the alphabet in lace stitches - knit in Baby Cashmerino for my nephew's Christening. For my niece a few years before I'd given a charm bracelet including silver charms I knew had belonged to Mum and Grandma, but I didn't have anything tangible to pass down to a boy, so I really felt I needed to knit. In the note I wrote him to go with it, I explained my belief that the skills of our parents hands are somehow passed on to us, and that in this way, both the Grandmother and Great-Grandmother who would have loved him and covered him in knits were part of the blanket too.

My maternal grandmother was also a knitter and the few things that have survived that she made are very treasured by my Dad for sure. I recently recieved a sweater she made for one of her neices in the 80's and I'm really happy about it, the only knitted stuff I had from her was a sweater she made (1yr size) that both me and my sister had worn. Things don't have to be perfect to be heirlooms they just have to be loved and special because of who made tham and the intent behind them.

Every time I knit something I make a point that this will be timeless enough to be treated as heirloom. The Apple Tree blanket I knit for a friend who gave birth falls into this category. And other I have made in Merino, or Baby Cashmerino also.

Tadpole is just astonishingly beautiful, and so expressive! No one in my family knit with heirlooms in mind: everything, no matter how dear, got passed on. I guess the way my family lived was so impermanent, they never thought about holding on to things for the next generation, but simply lived in the moment.

Both my grandmothers are knitters and one crochets as well. My aunt & cousin both knit. My mother doesn't knit. I knit to knit - but if it gets passed down some day then great. I'm not looking to create award winning masterpieces or anything.

Gosh tadpole is adorable. Does she like younger men - Sean was eyeing her picture on the screen!

I knit a bonnet for my son (when he was an infant) and I tried to be meticulous in knitting and finishing thinking that he could use it for his children one day. I actually save all of the handmade things they have but in that case I paid particular attention.

I knit a bonnet for my son (when he was an infant) and I tried to be meticulous in knitting and finishing thinking that he could use it for his children one day. I actually save all of the handmade things they have but in that case I paid particular attention.

Hi!
I just knit (is that the past tense of knittig?) a blanket for a friends soon to be baby and whilst I am not sure it will become an heirloom I do hope it becomes much loved (and perhaps that means it will never survive to become an heirloom!) Like one of the other posters my mum knits Christmas stockings for newborn babies - my aunt in the US was the originator of the pattern when my brother was born (40 years ago this Christmas Eve) and my mum's first stocking she knit for me 37 years ago this year - it had a different colour of green wool in the foot than the rest of the leg and whilst she has in the last couple of years knit another stocking for me I still have the original. It is the same pattern every time for my mum - and she has probably made close to 500 in her time - all my close childhood friends have one and now some of my current friends who are having babies have them - indeed my best friend's children now have them - second generation!!

My paternal grandmother was a fabulous knitter - I remember some of the things she knit - fisherman sweaters for all of us - but I can't remember her knitting. I think about her often, though, when I knit myself. I like to think I've got her gene for it.

Tadpole isn't so tadpoley anymore, is she? She's getting so old! Cute as ever!

Tadpole is SO CUTE. Just sayin'.

There is always a perfect heirloom in my mind....but that often has to be abandoned as I work on the project. I think that is why finishing is so hard for me....its the time I have to face the imperfections of the knitted garment, that the sweater is not QUITE as perfect as it was in my mind.

Oh, she's so cute. I honestly don't think about knitting heirlooms. I want to use and wear my stuff now, while I am alive. The worst however is, that I think the all acrylic not-so-my-taste-baby sweater my MIL made, will survive forever (it's made of plastic after all).

I like the idea of knitting heirlooms. I am currently having difficulty envisioning to whom I would pass on these works of love and tradition. I do have a wedding ring shawl in my mind and heart that I would like to knit and have hopes that it would become a part of family future and history.

Good question, Kate! Most of the things I knit are samples, for sale, or for gifts... hopefully of the highest quality, but heirlooms is such a precious thought... something to make for my family, for my children and their children. I knit a lace shawl of my own design for my mother's 50th birthday - I hope it is an heirloom - cashmere/silk, lovely, perfect for my mom, and I was so pleased with it. I just started spinning yarn to knit a lace shawl for my upcoming wedding (next summer). My hope it that I will wrap my imaginary future children in this shawl at their baptism, and that my possible imaginary future daughters will wear it and pass it on. The heirloom knit has been on my mind lately! Your heirloom knit, those pants, are just lovely.

What cute little pants!!

I do my best and hope that it will be heirloom quality. I hope that some of the things that I have made for my son will last through him and to many generations to come.

The idea of knitting an heirloom was part of my desire to knit a shawl for my upcoming wedding. Something that I wore on that day that could be passed down in a much more timeless manner than a dress that will be unfashionable in five years.

My family also has a tradition of knit Christmas stockings and I'll be picking that up at some point, when my mom decides she doesn't want to do it anymore. It came to our family through my aunt's husband's side, his mother taught my aunt how to knit them, and she taught my mom, who taught me. I'm not sure how many generations back they go though.