A Row of Thoughts

You may remember that I had a yen to knit a hat a good while back and rekindle a former love for knitting.

Well, I achieved my goal and yesterday finished my very first hat on circular needles, which had seemed like a peak too far when all this knitting thing came into my head again.

I have definitely become a bit, no more than a bit, addicted and am rather shocked at how easily I have fallen into happily spending hours just knitting row after row and also gazing at websites with vast arrays of patterns and most of all alluring yarns.

I have always felt that sport, especially tennis, has many lessons for us about life so I guess it was only a matter of time before I got to thinking about life lessons from knitting.

The main point that keeps cropping up relates to unravelling. In knitting, you can so easily rip up a piece and start afresh. Okay, you may well have learned from the mistake or whatever caused you to rip the piece but life seems more complex. It’s very hard to just undo something and start again, especially when it comes to relationships and interactions with other people. Lessons can be learned but starting afresh can still have a lot of baggage attached which can get in the way either consciously or subconsciously. However, knitting shows that sometimes restarting can be the best option or even going back to the point where things went wrong, like the dropped stitch. Is this the equivalent of talking things through and trying to sort out sticking points? I think it probably is.

I have also been haunted in these little projects with thoughts of a tour I took of historic Kikenny Castle and the point made by the guide that there were always mistakes deliberately left in the big tapestries that are so beautiful there. This was to symbolize the fact that humans make mistakes.

I love this idea and am treating the many blemishes in my humble hats as being akin to those in the great tapestries.

Such a way of thinking allows incredible freedom, though I have discovered that untreated dropped stitches are an unmitigated disaster.

Now back to knit 2, purl 2 …..