A to Z Challenge, Day 11: K Is For Knitting
You had to see this coming! OF COURSE K IS FOR KNITTING! What else could it POSSIBLY be for? Really now.
I took my first knitting class in 2000, after a friend at work recommended Sharon Shoji as an excellent instructor. In my first class, Sharon taught us to knit plain knitting all the way through ribbing. After an initial struggle with the ribbing, I got the hang of it. We progressed through textured knitting to cables and lace and from there, I was totally and completely hooked.
In 2008, I started this blog. Shortly after, I decided to start Knoontime Knitting, where I focus on the crafts that make me totally bonzo: knitting, of course, but also needlepoint and embroidery (my first textile art, in fact), weaving, calligraphy, and pysanky. I love to make things with my hands but didn’t allow myself to do much of it until I took my classes with Sharon.
What I have learned informs my writing process as much as my textile arts. See, it’s like this:
- If you keep going, you’ll end up with enough knit and purl stitches to make a scarf, or a sweater, or an afghan.
- Dropped stitches don’t always mean the piece is ruined. Sometimes you just need to undo a little bit.
- Some mistakes make the piece more beautiful and unique.
- If you let it, knitting will soothe you the way flowing water does.
- Learning new techniques keeps it interesting. Always be a beginner. Zen mind, beginner’s mind.
I haven\’t knitted at all, but I love to crochet. Haven\’t done it for a long while, but it\’s been calling to me of late. Can\’t say as there have been any life lessons in crocheting (yet), but I do find analogies to the process of life all around me. And those often apply to the writing process, too, as you\’ve so deftly pointed out. 🙂
My mom was a big crochet person. She loves to make afghans. She used mostly half doubles, so nothing super fancy, but she\’d put a lot of work into finding just the right color scheme. I can crochet and have also taken Tunisian crochet, and taught my coauthor to crochet, but I\’m not a huge one for it. It\’s weird: most people I know are either one or the other, they don\’t do both. Not sure why.
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment; I appreciate it!
I so admire people who can knit and learn something from it! I learned how to do the stitches, but never really how to actually knit. I was all tensed up!
Yeah, I know people that find knitting stressful. It\’s too bad, because I find it so relaxing. Maybe you\’ll like crochet better. 🙂
I garden as a hobby and that has taught me to appreciate the cycles of life, the beauty of it and patience. It\’s also taught me plant extra for gophers, deer and chickens that like to harvest a bit for themselves.
I admire gardeners. I garden, but don\’t really consider myself a \”gardener\” yet. My garden last year was depressing, because my neighborhood got inundated with rats, which was awful. We\’re hopeful that it will be better this year because our winter was so cold.