Modern love

A mother and daughter find an old-time craft and a newfangled way to keep in touch

- PATRICIA GALLAGHER

“MOM, WE NEED to come up with a hobby to do together on Skype,” my youngest daugh­ter, Kristen, told me last spring. Two years ago Kristen had moved from Philadelphia, where we lived, to San Francisco. We Skyped religi­ously for an hour every Sunday, and her father was actually giving her guitar lessons that way.

I wracked my brain. “You know that I’m terrible at crafts, but what if we try making pot holders? The ones you weave with loops of cotton over a small loom.” When I was 10, I’d made many and sold them for a nickel each in our neighborhood. They were simple to master, but I hoped I still had the skills.