My mother, Anna Wirth Thompson (1936- ) learned to knit, crochet, embroider, and sew in school in Germany, where she was born and grew up. She taught me to knit when I was seven years old. I was in Mrs. Stone's second grade class at Edgemere Elementary School in Plainview, Texas, at the time.

First, I knitted the yellow piece, which was about 5 inches wide at the start. As many beginning knitters do, I accidentally added stitches, so the width at my last row was 6.75 inches. The piece measured 4.75 inches from bottom to top. The yarn was probably wool.

I had watched my mother knit slipper socks for my father. They were blue with a wondrous stranded pattern in red. After the heel, she worked two sets of 2 x 2 stranded checks, for a total of four rounds. Then came a decorative diamond shaped pattern, and finally another 4 rounds of 2 x 2 checks.

"Mom, I want to knit checks," I told her. She gave me more wool, and told me how to knit checks. I offer written instructions, all these years later:

Row 1: *k 4, p 4;* rep from * across.
Rows 2-5 (or so): Knit the knits and purl the purls.
Row 6: Purl the knits and knit the purls.
Rows 7-10: Repeat Rows 2-5.

Following her spoken instructions, I created a (mostly) checkerboard pattern with textures. But, "Mom, I want to knit colors!" I said, thinking of the checks on the slipper socks she made.

She gave me multi-color yarn in the Fiesta colorway. I guess that satisfied me for a time. The finished piece was 5 to 6 inches wide and 10-ish inches from cast on to bind off.

My mom influenced the course of my life by teaching me how to knit. I am glad she did.

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