What did the brother mean when he said he “didn't have the heart” to ask Irene what she planned to do with the sweaters? What does this suggest about how he feels about her hobby?
The brother respected his sister's love of knitting, even if her sweaters seemed to have no purpose. From this, we can infer that he preferred to leave her to her hobby. He might consider and wonder about her purpose, but he concedes to her love for the hobby.
I wonder what Irene would have done without her knitting. One can reread a book, but once a pullover is finished you can't do it over again, it's some kind of disgrace. One day I found that the drawer at the bottom of the chiffonier, replete with mothballs, was filled with shawls, white, green, lilac. Stacked amid a great smell of camphor--it was like a shop; I didn’t have the nerve to ask her what she planned to do with them. We didn’t have to earn our living, there was plenty coming in from the farms each month, even piling up. But Irene was only interested in the knitting and showed a wonderful dexterity, and for me the hours slipped away watching her, her hands like silver seaurchins, needles flashing, and one or two knitting baskets on the floor, the balls of yarn jumping about. It was lovely.
House Taken Over
