It’s 06:50 and I’m driving while listening to a local radio station. The radio presenter’s question this morning is: “Do grandparents still knit today?”

“I remember,” he continues, “how my grandmother used to knit when I was a child. It was a thing. They knitted everything,” he tells us, the listeners, and his fellow radio presenters in the studio. Then they played voice notes sent by listeners.

“My grandmother is 81 and she still knits. She knits about 80 jerseys every year for children’s homes,” one lady says.

“My grandmother is 86 and she still knits. She knits jerseys, blankets, gloves, etc. Whatever you want, she knits,” another listener says in response to the question.

Fast Forward To 2024

My mother crochets. She does know how to knit but prefers crocheting. She crochets the most beautiful table runners, place-mats, key rings, jerseys, blankets — whatever you ask her or whatever she’s in the mood for. She just doesn’t fancy knitting. My grandmother used to knit anything and everything. Her daughter and my late cousin did as well.

I was taught as a kid how to knit, but I never took it upon myself to further the skill. It just didn’t sit well with me. I learned the skill because it made me happy to see the happiness in my grandmother’s, father’s, and mother’s eyes when I tried, but I never mastered it. I just don’t like knitting, and my grandchildren won’t have a grandmother in me, who knits or crochets.

Do I Know People Who Knits?

The elderly people I know between the ages of 65 and 82 (and I know many) don’t knit or crochet either. They have decided to rather help their children with their grandchildren by taking them to extracurricular activities, picking them up from school, or attending Bible study hours. They prefer to help out with the grandchildren because today’s parents also need to travel for work, and then the children go stay with their grandparents.

That’s how much life has changed in 20–40 years (1980–2024). In 1980–2000, it was still popular to find many grandparents knitting and crocheting, but I think that since life has changed where both parents need to work, grandparents are stepping up to help with the children, leaving behind things like hobbies.

Do I miss seeing elderly people knit or crochet? Not really. I rather like it that grandparents have the opportunity to be part of their children and grandchildren’s lives.

Do you still know of grandparents who knit?