Knitting

My journey with knitting began almost 10 years ago (mixed in with an attempt to crochet also) when I decided to pick it up one day after declaring I was done smoking. I got some yarn from my mom and a couple needles and asked someone how to cast on. That only lasted about a week (the knitting that is). But I didn't learn how to cast off...so it was bound to be a really long scarf it I kept it up. So for everyone's best interest I sat the needles down.
Next time I picked up needles was two years ago. I held onto all that yarn and never did a thing with it! We were visiting our friends Sid & Kate and Kate was knitting a baby afghan for a friend of hers. A flicker of interest lit and I asked her to teach me. She lent me (which I still have Kate if you're reading) a pair of her needles and gave me two colors of yarn and told me to just knit, pearl till it's done. It took me a year but I finished that scarf! It was my first finished product. I gave it to my friend Beth whom I love very much.
Unfortunately, I sat my needles down and didn't pick them up again until about 7 months ago. I decided that I would make us some kitchen cloths with a pattern my friend Amy gave me. I almost finished one before Gretchen was born a few weeks later, but didn't. So there this knitting bag sat. Full of yarn, needles, and hope. For 5 months.
Then this friend of mine, Kim, was knitting a "Prayer Shawl" and I was enamored. She got me the pattern and told me what size needles to get. I excitedly ran to the store and purchased my very own size 15 needles. No messing around with this buggar! I mean business. These needles are huge! They're probably considered lethal weapons in some areas. Anyway, I started knitting one for a friend of mine on this hippie christian bulletin board I'm a marginal member of ( Bee Ye Glad). Shortly after I began that project is when my G.G. died. She was an avid knitter. This last year (2007) she knit 14 afghans before she passed away. That's like over 1 a month. It's going to take me over a month to finish a SHAWL, and an afghan uses at least twice, if not three times the yarn! Amazing! It wasn't a competition for her. She simply loved to knit. She loved to give her creations to family. I have multiple knitted creations from her myself. I am suspecting it was part of what kept her mind so fit to the very end, that and hand writing letters and signing cards to all her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even great-great-grandchildren!
It seems though, ever since my Great Grandma died about a month ago, I can't stop knitting. I finished a kitchen cloth, finally! and am into my first shawl (over a 1/3 of the way done) and have plans for lots more projects. I don't know what it is. I'm sure there are plenty of other children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who spent more time with her that could have picked up her trademark past-time, but for some reason I feel compelled to make it a past time of mine.
It's very contemplative for me. I spend lots of time thinking, processing, praying, dreaming. I'm a thinker anyway, but this is a way to keep me busy while I'm drifting off into where-ever-land. Hee hee.
It really has become a minor obsession of mine. I found myself thinking the other day, "how long until I can knit again?" and, "What should I work on next?" or, "Who should I give this next ____ to?"
Christian commented to me the other day to stop trying to impress him with how fast I was knitting. I thought, "Sheesh, I'm slow compared to my G.G!"
At any rate, her love for knitting has manifested itself into my hands, at least for now. And I remember her each time I look at the work my hands are making and I praise God for this craft and for my G.G. and for people's appreciation, or lack there of, this wonderful hand-craft.