Knitting

I have been asked to say something about knitting. Indeed yesterday someone asked me, "Why isn't your blog about knitting?"
I could write a blog about knitting but I am a writer and a reader too. 
Not everyone can knit. Some of the people I know best have no idea how to knit. 
I am the only person in my family who knits. My mother could but only made plain garments. She made them out of necessity in her early year and when we kittens were small. Later she did some for herself and "gardening" jumpers (sweaters) for the Senior Cat and her grandchildren. The "gardening" sort were striped affairs made out of left overs. There was the dusty pink cardigan she made for herself too. It had a lace border - knitted by me. If she had anything fancy it was made by me.
The Senior Cat once tried to knit. My godmother tried to teach him. She was a triple-certificated nursing sister and happened to be working in the small country hospital where he had his emergency appendectomy. The results were not a great success. I saw them years later when my mother was clearing out a cupboard preparatory to us moving  yet again.
Brother Cat once knitted a jumper for his teddy bear - after Middle Cat had given the poor bear a hair cut. It was just small squares of garter stitch sewn together but, as he liked to point out, he made it. These days he says he has no idea how to knit.
Middle Cat cannot knit. The Black Cat cannot knit. I suspect they would never have been very interested even if my paternal grandmother had, by then, been close enough to teach them. (We had moved 443 miles away by the time they might have managed to learn. My mother had no time to teach them. She was working full time and very difficult conditions.)
So, I consider myself very privileged to have had "Grandma" teach me. It was a huge effort for both of us. My mother kept telling me I would not succeed but my grandmother kept telling me I would - and I did. It took a long time for me to do it as well as some of the girls around me but I did it. Since then I have managed to learn a great deal more. When the Senior Cat refers to "that stuff you make with all the holes in it" the holes are deliberate - at least, I hope it is lace.
Now what worries me is that very few children seem to be learning to knit. There is just one young girl who goes to the  guild I belong to and, if she keeps it up, she is going to be very good indeed. I hope she does.  I know there are younger knitters out there. They head off to the pub or a cafe to knit and that's good. They are out there where people can see them. They are using the internet to teach themselves  skills I had to learn from books and by experimenting for myself.  I haven't seen them in those places but, from what they tell me, I know they are helping each other as well.
I helped a friend at a craft fair recently. Over my quick lunch I was approached by someone who is responsible for teaching adults who want to make a living from art or a craft. We discussed whether it might be desirable to have a recognised qualification in handknitting and crochet. I had an email yesterday asking me to do some more about this and I will. Perhaps more people will see it as a skill worth learning if they know there is a qualification that can be worked towards. 
If you were a beginner at something like that would that interest you? I'd really like to know.