I am learning to knit. As I wrap my mind around each stitch and try to focus enough to get the twists and turns just right, I am also learning to slow down, look closely at what is before me, and to relax (or the stitches tighten terribly making future movement frustrating and difficult).
The greatest lesson so far comes from considering how small variations in one single stitch can create such dramatic effects on the outcome of the finished piece. Yarn twisted one way gives you a smooth look; another gives you a ribbed look; make a Trinity stitch and you are left with something that looks like a blackberry (the kind you eat, that is!)
Is this not true for the rest of my life as well? One thought twisted one way or another, followed by the next thought creates the structure of my awareness and the place where I live out my days. It reminds me that I must learn to guide my thoughts and to take responsibility to knit my own thinking in ways that create the best possible outcomes in the fabric of my life.
1 comment:
Knitting is SO feminine, and women have been liberated from the task. We can give a few pennies to struggling Bandladeshi women and children, and they will do it for us so we are "freed" from this mundane task. But knitting is SO basic and SO essential for ALL women and All men. When pregnant, a woman spends nine months knitting the child together, and then the parents need to knit a gossamer around the family that provides love, warmth, laughter and a sense of well-being until the child has learned to knit for himself (but are there any teachers left? I do have a grandson who knits) Many thanks for these words, John, for the knitting you speak of is not just a quaint pass-time but something vital for us all that technology and modernity and "progress" know nothing of. With love, Michael
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