Wool Over My Eyes

Me in the Cable Brim Hat in gray

Knitting is more an individual past time then it is a social past time. I am fortunate to have met a great group of women with whom I enjoy meeting once a week to socialize and gab over our newest adventures in knitting, yarn and notions.  This week there was pre-class email banter over a sale that enabled a few of us to purchase Amish swifts for just $20. I can't wait to receive mine and more importantly, to use it.

As I was saying, knitting is a very individual hobby. More often then not (or knot), we are curled up in our favorite chair or sofa with music or television playing in the background as we get wrapped up in our patterns and yarns. There is no doubt it is meditative, taking you off into your thoughts and allowing you to relax into the peace and rhythm of knit and purl stitches. Because regardless of what we think when we're stuck on a difficult part of a pattern, there is a rhythm and a sense to each design, mathematical equations that have reason and login and that alone is soothing because there is always an answer even if we aren't the ones who have it.

Life isn't so predictable. Life can often throw us into situations that are far messier and uncomfortable, where we instead long for something that can bring the comfort, safety and warm we know knitting can offer. I am not alone in that, I am sure. So I found it very symbolic when last week, I finished the back of a sweater that is going to take me a long time. I am committed but I also know that I need variety in making things. I had three skeins of a gorgeous wool slub in dark grey that I had purchased in New York City in December. I had no idea what to make with it, but a quick trip to Ravelry and I had found a hat pattern I was excited to start.

The yarn wasn't easy to work with. Like my life at the time, and before, there were thick pieces that made it difficult to maneuver and thinner pieces that I feared would fray or break. That never happened, but I was weary of each stitch, fearful of some outcome that would cause me discomfort or disruption in what should be a straightforward pattern. By choosing to make it with the slub, I had chosen to make it more difficult then it needed to be. Oh, how parallel to life.

Needless to say, I endeavored to complete this project as I don't like leaving anything unfinished. And I was more then pleased with the outcome (so far). I do have yet to create a brim out of a baseball cap and sew it in, but I shall as soon as it is blocked.  I could not resist taking a preliminary photo of the design though, as I really think it's a special piece and super warm and comfortable. In fact, I didn't want to take it off, unfinished or not. I wanted to crawl inside it's warm softness and live there, safe and warm and loved. Like life though, I could not pull the wool over my eyes though; I had to take the hat off so I can finish it once and for all. And so I can see - wherever that may lead me.