My teenager knitted a scarf and I made it an age joke

My fifteen-year-old came downstairs wearing a scarf she had made. It was uneven and much too long for the weather.

I said she was ready to join her grandmother's knitting circle.

She took it off.

I thought I had made a harmless joke about a hobby I associate with my mother. My daughter thought I had announced that the thing she was excited to show us was ridiculous.

“You asked why I'm always on my phone. Now I'm doing something else and you have a comment about that too.”

That landed more accurately than my joke.

She had watched videos to learn the stitches. There were two abandoned squares in her room and a ball of yarn rolling under the desk. I had seen all of it and said nothing until the scarf appeared.

My mother asked if she could see it. They sat together examining a place where the stitches had changed. My daughter asked a question. Nobody at the table needed me to supply another line.

Later I apologized. She said it wasn't that serious, which gave me a convenient exit. I took half of it. I said okay, then added that I still shouldn't have made fun of the reveal.

The scarf is back on her chair. She isn't suddenly devoted to knitting, and I don't know whether she'll finish another thing. I want to avoid making the next project a test of whether my apology worked.

Yesterday she asked if we had a smaller pair of scissors for trimming yarn. I found them. It was an ordinary question about an ordinary object.

I managed to answer without commenting on her retirement plans.