The Wonder of Girls?

"It must be so fab to have a girl," says my partner in yarn crime Loop de Loop-mother to three boys with a fourth on the way, "Think of all the cool things you can knit her."

She lists the possibilities, the Barefoot Knits Tankini, the Knitty Twinkle Toes and all the Nicky Epstein Barbie Knits. Then there's all the cool grrl gear from Stitch and Bitch

L de L however, has not spent much time with the Imperious Goth Tween whose favourite colours are black, camo and khaki in that order and believes that her raison d'etre in life is to wear clothes that are ripped and safety pinned together. Her straight legged jeans recently got their very first hole which made her tres pleased.

Her friends' closests are littered with all her fashionable hand knit discards, the "tutters" as she calls her closest girl friends own an impressive array of shrugs, pullovers and ponchos all in the latest colours purloined from her drawers ("Oh take it, my mum can make me another one anytime," she tells them when they admire her hand knits). Now that is not to say that the IGT does not appreciate my knitting. She loves wearing all the stuff I knit for me especially the blacks--which I only wear because they haven't invented a darker colour yet. It doesn't do any good when I point out to the IGT that she literally swims in my cardis and t-shirts, she just insists that she's "still growing". She also appreciates my knitwit by promising her friends hand knitted gifts for their "annual emotionally laden origin events" a.k.a birthdays/adoption days. I still haven't recovered from making three pairs of orange punk rock tweed mittens in three days for her playmates Kyle, Greg and Jarrod back in Kindergarten (to be honest it was the least I could do for their parents given how much the IGT terrorized, I mean bossed them around on the playground.)

Luckily for me her brother the Surly Teen (who is less surly at the promise of new Fleece Artist Socks in sea wool) wears everything I make him with no questions asked. I think L de L needs to start seeing the knit potential in her boys.