Knitting and me

I am coming to an end of this shawl I started knitting in September. It has been time-consuming. When I started it, I didn’t know how long it would take. I thought – maybe a year! A friend who is an expert knitter was doing it with me. She is a knitting mentor. Now she is waiting for me to catch up so we can bind off together.

I didn’t have a burning desire to learn to knit, but I love yarn. And I love what my friend makes. She pushed me a little, and I thought – I can do this. I watched some videos on YouTube. Since I’m starting from square one, I thought why not learn to knit the most ergonomic way possible? I settled on Norwegian style knitting, where the yarn is held in the left hand and scooped from the left index finger. I realized this method, besides being ergonomic, comes more naturally to me as a crocheter. I also hold the yarn in my left hand when I crochet, and scoop the yarn from my left finger, although I hold my finger straight out.

I tried to learn to knit once from Selma Miriam, a founder of Bloodroot Restaurant in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She used to sit at the front entrance and knit while awaiting customers. I admired her so much. I’m surprised I found the courage to ask her to teach me to knit. As far as I know, she’s still living, born in 1934.

She started me out making a square patch with red yarn and long blue metal needles, which I still have. She probably taught me to hold the yarn in my right hand. I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t practice and never scheduled a second lesson. I figured even an expert knitter like her couldn’t teach me.

Fast forward 25-30 years. I decided to embark on a huge simple knitting project. I chose a simple pattern for a shawl that involved nothing but knit stitch, back and forth. The wingspan is 108″, so it’s quite a large project. If I hadn’t built the finger memory to knit by the end of this project, it was hopeless. I think I’ve got the hang of it! Although the shawl has a lot of mistakes, as expected for a beginner. Now I want to learn to purl.

However, I want even more to get back to stitching. I don’t want knitting to take over my life as it seems to have. Maybe I’ll do a knitting project here and there… It is enjoyable, but seems kind of mindless compared to the color and composition possibilities of patchwork.

I took the below photo yesterday, when it was sunny. The room looked so pleasant to me. This is the place where I’ve done most of the knitting, at the dining table. The shawl is piled up on the table with a big bowl next to it to hold the yarn. The tablecloth came in the mail recently from a friend who bought it in Europe – France or Italy? and then didn’t use it after they sold their house and moved into a mobile home. There is some lichen and a turkey feather, found objects, on the table. The plants have moved in with us and taken over the space – two lemon trees, several pepper plants, and a foster geranium, all huge, and all used to living outside in the summer.

Today it’s been gray and much colder with a few flurries this morning.