I am the type of person to whom sewing
came easy. Within a month of sewing, I was drafting my own patterns,
and looking for a higher-quality machine to work on a long scale. To
this day sewing remains the one skill I have that I have the most
confidence in. Despite being a general crafter, when people as me
what I do, my response is
always the same: “I sew.”
However, knowing
how to knit is something that opens design doors, and would allow me
to expand on the things I make. Unfortunately, where sewing,
bookbinding, and various other crafts came easy, knitting is
something I just don't grasp.
When I first picked
up a basic knitting kit three or so years ago I thought it would be
easy. Two needles, one thing of yarn, lets do this thing! Then I
actually tried. My stitches were a mess, and forget about gauges and
designs. Please! I was hopeless, and not to mention in pain. (It took a better part of the past three years to realize I need to relax while knitting, and only use wooden needles.)
Since then, once a
year, when the weather gets cold I break out the knitting needles and
struggle through a week or month of Trying To Knit, before giving up
completely.
And Trying To Knit was quite the ritual. It generally came out with the snow, when other past-times like skating and hula-hooping outdoors got bothersome, and before I realize that Netflix just updated their entire Instant Watch catalog with some obscure television show that I will spend the next few months engrossed in with never-ending cups of hot chocolate. It involved cursing, and ripping out stitches, and unraveling everything I had done only to redo it, unravel, redo, unravel in a never-ending series of frustration and a scarf only ten inches long before I QUIT.
This year, however, I've noticed something: for all my
complaining, sore fingers, and confusion, I'm getting better.
Which is a good
thing because this is also the year I opted to knit some Christmas
gifts. Go figure, right? But what I've learned is this: If I weren't
knitting things for Christmas, I never would have learned.
For me, knitting
was never a real challenge because I never had a reason to do it.
Scarves are the traditional beginner's project, but I don't need no
stinkin' scarves (no, really: I already own a number, most of which I
use to tie back my hair, and my one knit scarf does the job just fine
in winter). Socks, however? Adorable knit octopodes? These are the
thing I need in my life. Or, rather: the lives of my friends who
will be receiving them.
And, really:
knitting is fun.
Who knew?
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