Two Tams in a Pod

Take two sisters, myself being one of them, and imagine two tams that perfectly reflect each one and her respective personality. Here is the twist: the two tams are the same exact pattern, knitted on the same needles, and created by the same knitter. It is amazing to me that, with a simple change in yarn and recipient, a pattern can look completely different. This was the first pattern that I have knit more than once (and there is a small chance I could be whipping up another one), yet the experience could not have been more different. The first time was with a variegated alpaca/merino blend that looked different with every row. I thought on myself and how wonderful this would look and feel on my head on the cold days that would eventually surface no matter where my future took me. The yarn slid through my fingers like butter, and while the pattern presented challenges, I wrestled out a rather wonderful hat that I wear more often than underwear (you can decide if that is an exaggeration.) 

In the case of my sister's, the yarn was perfect for her. Pure Peruvian Highland Wool in the deepest wine merlot color. (It is a good thing I picked up more than one skein and the yardage is so excellent or else she would have been SOL, because there is no way I would have parted with it otherwise. Even the one skein was a test of charity, and I only....okay, enough of this.) Anyway, on the rare occasion I actually knit for another, I try to consider them in every stitch. This was easy enough considering the yarn mimicked my sister's persona to a tee. So clean and lovely looking, yet with habits that could drive one to vexation (mainly sliding off the needles the minute I turned my back upon it.) The pattern in her hat seems clear upon first sight, yet the moment the light shifts it looks like a completely different picture. I thought on my wonderful sibling, walking through the wind and the snow with music clutched to her chest, and the tam faithfully holding to her cranium keeping it warm and her hair in place. The Peruvia slid through my fingers like cloud fragments, and though I faced challenges again, the hat looks just as lovely as its predecessor and my sister absolutely adores it.

The main comparison I wish to make is how much these two hats are the perfect physical representation of our relationship as sisters. We have different yarn, completely different looks and attitudes, but we share the common love that comes from being of the same blood and from sharing common experience that no other can ever come close to understanding. Hats off (yes that pun was fully intended) to sisters, especially mine!