Hand Me Downs

One of the perks of being the second-born is hand-me-downs.  Recently, my daughter sent me a photo of our Jamie stacking paint in her studio (pretty amazing tower, you must admit!), and in addition to reveling in the utter cuteness of it all, I noticed he was wearing a sweater I knit years ago for his now much bigger brother. My knitting heart delighted in seeing this obviously much loved sweater back in use again. 

When my children were growing up and out growing their clothes, I would announce I needed to take a trip to the "magic attic" where hand-me-downs awaited, packed in neatly marked boxes, gifts from the Dinsmore family who conveniently had children a boy and a girl just enough older than ours to make us the beneficiaries of their outgrown clothes.  Between the magic attic and my mother, we rarely purchased clothing for our kids during those younger years.  And we passed them along as well.  I think every Campbell child on our branch and Jim's brother's branch of the family tree wore these unisex OshKosh overalls.

Hand me downs affirm that we are part of something--a family, a tribe, a circle of friends, the proverbial village it takes to raise a child.  When our son and his wife gave birth to their daughter, his sister, the mother of two sons, packed up toys and clothes to ship to her niece.  Rosemary now wears the same striped socks that once covered her cousins' feet.  

 When Alex was just about Jamie's age, my daughter saw a sweater I was knitting for Knit for Kids, a charity that sends sweaters to children in need all over the globe.  Barbara liked the straight simple lines of this easy-to-knit pattern and she asked me to make one for Alex, so I did.  Because it is an easy on and easy off sweater, he wore it a lot and it shows.  I am tickled Jamie is wearing this sweater, but I thought perhaps he needed his own.  Last week, I knit one up just for him; maybe someday, his little cousin will wear it too!