What can I make for you please?

I knit mainly for my daughter. You see, she has no choice in what she wears, although with every passing day, this is less and less the case. I have a nephew, who in the past I have tried to knit for, and long, long before, when it could be cute to wear something that embarrassing Aunt has made for you, he had long since been rejecting any of the hand made items I made for him with love in every stitch. As he got older, I began to query his reluctance to wear anything I made, and have as a result discovered two things. Number 1 -- Do not knit with itchy yarn. Kids hate it. He was always very sweet about protecting my feelings, but he was not going to put himself in a position to itch voluntarily. Number 2 -- I figured out that you should probably ask anyone over the age of 5 what you should knit for them if you are bent on knitting something. Since my kid had been the main beneficiary of my creative woolen goods, I began to feel I should make something for my beloved nephew Chris. As that urge to knit began to take hold like a rabid case of scabies, I was determined to knit something for him. I asked him if there was anything he wanted. He of course politely declined, expressing that one as cool and manly (as his 11 year old self was at the time), had no such need for silly hats to keep his head warm, and scarves are just annoying. OK -- so he didn't quite say all that, but trust me people, it is all in the subtext. One glorious day my nephew came to me with tears in his eyes requesting that I use my gift of having string to do my bidding be used to make him some gloves. Truthfully, that moving interaction went something more like this -- "Hey, how about a pair of mittens?" To which he laughed. 11/12 year old manly boys DO NOT wear mittens. Gloves? Eh, no. No interest in gloves either. But then finally he did decide on something. Fingerless gloves. I offered (because I can't help myself) the convertible mitten option to which he again politely decline. But we were on to something, and I could not let this opportunity pass me by, so I feverishly began to work on fingerless gloves with the same urgency as one who is conducting DNA analysis for the Innocence Project, and within a couple of days my beloved boy had his fingerless gloves whether he really wanted them or not. More importantly though, I wanted him to have them, even though I worried that his little finger tips might get cold. After spending sleepless, and painstakingly long nights worrying about this, I was happy to see that at the end of the winter season last year, he had not only wore them, nor did he render them or one of the pair of gloves homeless, he ended up asking if I could make the convertible mitten hood after all. His fingers were warm last winter as were the cockles of my heart.