For many years my friend, Suzanne, owned a fabulous yarn shop. It had lots of beautiful yarn and offered weaving and knitting classes. It was also a community gathering place where people stopped by to sit around a table, maybe get a few tips when working through a tricky pattern and enjoy being in the company of others engaged in the slow rhythm of making something beautiful and useful with four wooden sticks and a ball of string. For several months I’d been stopping by the shop to chat with my friend, but then end up spending significant time wandering around the store touching all the soft colorful yarn. Eventually she handed me a birthday gift certificate for a sock class say in was time to learn to knit. Actually socks are a bit advanced to start with, but the class was taught by a great teacher who patiently walked me through the process of creating my first pair of hand knit socks which I was quite proud to have completed —even though they could have easily fit the feet of the Jolly Green Giant. Since then I’ve continued to knit, mostly small things that can be tucked into a purse or backpack. I’ve grown to appreciate doing something that requires a slower rhythm and can only happen one stitch at a time.
The four things I learned in that first knitting class….
Use good of yarn. If you are going to spend that much time knitting something beautiful, useful and lasting, it should be a pleasure to feel the yarn moving through your fingers.
Settle In and Be Present Knitting happens one stitch at a time. You can’t rush a hand knit glove or sock or scarf or sweater. Settle in, enjoy the process. Love the rhythm of the looping yarn around a needle and pulling it through. Love the feel of the yarn, the love the person for whom the piece is being created.
Envision — Imagine the finished piece. Knitting requires being present in the here and now, doing what can only be done one stitch at a — but it also helps to envision, to imagine the beautiful thing you are creating, something that might not be finished for quite some time.
Every now and then - stop and admire your work. This was very important. Knitting takes time, and so our teacher encouraged us all to stop every 15 minutes so, lay down our work, smooth with our hands and admire what we’d done.
Even though her advice was specific to knitting, I often feel like it was good advice in the course of any busy day. Pay attention to the quality of things, learn to settle in and be present, envision something beautiful, and every now and then pause and admire how far you’ve come.
My knitting teacher knew that doing more and doing it faster is not always better. There is a shining quality to things that are done by hand, created with time, shared around a table with a community.
She knew that somethings can only happen one step at a time, one stitch at a time. Like a beautiful hand knitted item, I cannot knit the last row before knitting the row I am currently knitting. I have to settle into the chapter of the book I’m currently reading, learn what this chapter has to teach me, then reading the next. In fact if I am always trying to knit the last row before it’s time to knit the last row, the piece gets jumbled and pattern gets tangled.
She also knew that it’s good to take breaks, and even to take stock in how far you’ve come. I loved this little bit of advice. I can be very goal oriented at times and I’m passionate about the things I hope to contribute in the world. I want to do my part to create the better, kinder more just world. I see how far we have to go and that knowledge sometimes comes with a desire to rush and accelerate my days. It is good to lay down my knitting, smooth my hands over the even stitches, realized how much love is going into this emerging piece. Yes, there is a fierce urgency of now, and so I take the step I need to take today. It is good to tell one another stories of struggle and change, but also tell one another stories of when our hopes were answered and our work mattered.
Take a short walk outside our even around a favorite room of your home. Deliberately take twice as long to walk where ever you are going. Notice what you notice by going a bit slower. When you arrive at the mailbox or kitchen sink or favorite chair look back and admire the steps you took to reach this place. Love the journey, love the steps love the place you arrived and love the return. If you feel like it, create a haiku or a two line description of the experience.
Even if you are not a knitter, did anything about this post resonate for you. What do you think about these four bits of advice. Is there one that resonated for you and why?
I’m in the studio right now and have LOVED working this week with some of my favorite musicians on the planet — Gary Walters, Jim Brock, Paul Kowert, Jordan Tice, Ella Jordan, Ben Sollee and of course David Weber. I’ll be posting more about the upcoming album in the coming weeks. But know I’m so excited about this project and can’t wait to share it with you all!
My last album was titled “A Great Wild Mercy”. Here’s the lyric video from that project :-)
… more to come!
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.