Daughter carries on mother’s tradition

Years after Susan White helped her mother, Lois Lee, get into knitting, she is now following the legacy her mother left behind.

White took up knitting many years ago, and started Lee on the hobby, which Lee took up after her retirement. She got her patterns and started knitting different items, including her now-famous stockings.

Lee passed away earlier this year, but White is now continuing the work in her mother’s honor.

She “had a real good business going,” White said. She started by using the “Good Neighbors” section of the newspaper back in the 1990s, putting her name out there while also depending on word-of-mouth advertising. Then, she got involved with PrimeTime Treasures of the Assistance League, which started in Homewood in 1976. PrimeTime Treasures is one of the two shops that make up The Shops of Assistance League, which is a nonprofit, volunteer-managed shop that sells crafts made by senior citizens of Alabama.

“Mama was really good at copying patterns,” White said.

Lee would make stockings with Santas, reindeer, snowmen and more, and if she did not have the pattern, she could copy it, White said. She often took custom orders, including names, dates and more.

One woman with whom White spoke recently told her she had a mantle full of Lee’s stockings. For 20 years, people came to her for all of their stockings.

“They just love them,” White said.

Lee was a retired school teacher, and when she left the world of education, knitting took up a good chunk of her time, White said.

“Her knitting was her life,” White said. “She just knitted all the time.”

Lee kept a box under her bed and, being a widow, she didn’t have anything else to do, White said.

This year, White said there are about 50 stockings going out, and she will replenish samples in January and February.

White does not knit all the time like Lee did but is proud to carry on her mother’s tradition, she said.

“I’m glad to do it,” White said. “I enjoy knitting. I like to see people enjoy them.”

People have been excited that the stockings will continue, and White knows how much it meant to her mother. “This was special to her.”