"It took a long time to make,"

Ms W informed the woman who had just looked at her favourite pullover. 
     "No, I didn't make it. I can't knit but Cat can and she made it and it took forever to do."
And no, I won't make another one for a complete stranger who probably has absolutely no idea how much work is involved in making anything.
Ms W helped me with the snap hair clips. She is a gloriously neat fingered individual who does do all sorts of craft work - but she doesn't knit or crochet. Ask her to turn out an origami elephant or a model of a building or "one of those useful baskets" and she just does it. 
She has taught herself these things. I think it may have something to do with being an only child in a single parent household. That household has a television set but there has to be something very special for it to be turned on.
      "I get to see less television than you," Ms W informed me some time ago.
It is probably true. I watch about three hours a week - the first half of a news program. Actually I don't really watch that much. I am listening. I look if I think it is important - and I do something else as well. Usually I knit. It is about the only time I get unless I am in a group  which knits. Knitting groups are important for me. It is the way I can relax without spending too much money.
Because yes, knitting takes time. Ms W says she doesn't have the patience - yet. I have pointed out she does have patience for other things. She also learns vocabulary while working on some of those things. She is not one to waste her time.
But the pullover is her favourite at the present time. Her old "favourite" is too small. She wore that until it grew too tight to be comfortable. She has it stored away, "in case I do get married and have a girl to wear it".  I am not sure that any future child will want to wear it. The re-knitted cuffs and the darned elbows may not be quite the thing.
It is a joy to make something for someone who appreciates the work that goes into them. It is a joy to make something for someone now in her teens who doesn't turn up her nose at something "home made".  Her friends don't mock it either. They are, she tells me, "jealous". 
Well yes, it was good wool. It is a little too big for her yet - deliberately so - but I don't think it will go out of fashion any time soon. 
I hope not. I don't want to knit another complex Aran for a while yet.