Day 21 - KNITTING

I've been knitting since childhood but never really progressed beyond scarves. My Grandma taught me with great patience and enthusiasm and as a teenager I tried to knit a cardigan. But it took ages. And I got the maths muddled somewhere along the line and the front bits were much longer than the back. If I'd have made the same mistake now I'd just say it's a design feature. But back then I wasn't so flexible. Instead I discarded said cardy, never to follow a pattern again.

Now when I knit, I just enjoy it. I've tried to push myself and bought books from charity shops with simple patterns in but never got beyond the browsing stage. The details still baffle me.

I know I could at least try and be less woolly about the whole thing but I'm quite happy just to knit a row and then purl the next, re-doing some along the way when I've dropped a stitch (I still have my standards!).

So today, knowing that I only had a few hours to make something, I chose my biggest needles, gathered the bits of wool I had to hand and clacked away. Whilst catching up on the Great British Bake Off and drinking tea. Bliss :-)

What emerged was not my best effort. I'd gained a few stitches somehow and created something more funnel shaped than straight line-y. Not to worry though. It wasn't for wearing but to be wrapped round a still bare branch on the yarn bombed tree outside, so perfection was needed not.

As I write this I'm looking out at the tree and enjoying the colours from all the scarves tied round it, every brittle, leafless limb now swathed in warmth and comfort. A sight that gives me great pleasure. Far more than that cardy ever did. Which I sweated and strained over. 

So I'm feeling OK about being a stunted knitter. Chuffed to have used the skill I do have to bring some colour and quirkiness into the world. And thankful for Grandma. Whose niftiness with the needles I will never surpass. Or even attempt to. But whose patience and enthusiasm at least has rubbed off. In different ways, for different things. And for that, I am purl-fectly grateful.