Day #34 — Kniting Do-over . . . Again

Barbara Fabian, Sit N'Knit owner, patiently gets me started once again.

Some things are easier to eliminate than others. Using up the yarn I’ve  bought during the past few years falls into the latter category.

If you recall, I bought yarn to make a wavy shawl in July of 2009. I got stuck, went back to the knitting store, got stuck again, went back to the knitting store and got stuck again. That brings us to January of 2010, when I abandoned the project all together. This past summer (2010), I went back to Sit N’Knit, where I bought the yarn, to once again ask for help. I was told that my project was irretrievable: There were  numerous mistakes in the middle of  it.  Sit N’Knit staff offered to rip out what I had knit, so I could start again.

“Hallelujah,” I said. “I’ve been absolved of my sins. I’m going to start a different project.”

Recently I’ve tried to begin a new scarf/sweater project, only to discover the yarn I own doesn’t lend itself to what I want to make.

O.K., I’ll try something else, I said to myself once again. Something smaller and more manageable.

Today, I took three skeins of yarn: one, orange; one, olive green; and one, purple; to Sit N’Knit, with the intention of starting a hat. Barbara Fabian, the store’s owner, helped me get going.

I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I spent more than four hours knitting a 20-inch piece, which was only a quarter-inch wide. I cast on the same 100 stitches four times, each time discovering an error and starting again.

The bottom line is that knitting is completely new to me, and I’m all thumbs at it. If I stick with it, I may get good at it, but I’m a long way from that point.

Furthermore, knitting reminds me of writing. It’s creating something out of thin air. There’s only my vision of what can can be. And then taking tiny steps to make my vision become reality.

Faith is the glue that keeps me moving forward. Faith that if I keep at it, something wonderful will materialize.

I hope so.

Tags: 170 Days of Change, change, do-over, faith, knitting