Thinking back, I have always been somewhat of a crafty person. I was a very quiet child, and always preferred sitting quietly with my grandmothers to playing with other children. Mostly, I liked to sit and read, but one of my grandmothers was crafty, and instructed in the ways of these dark, yarn arts. She taught me everything from knitting, crochet, needlepoint, to rug hooking, although I never delved too deeply into any of them.
I think I was five here, and making a Snoopy needlepoint!
After knitting a couple of practice squares and figuring out what pattern I wanted to use for the blanket, I was ready to begin! Sadly, that’s when my wrists decided to swell up and be extremely painful on bending (this is actually a fairly common horrible thing your body does to you when you’re pregnant). So I was only able to do one row a night until about five months after a had the baby, when my wrists went back down to normal. And just before the baby’s first birthday, I was finally able to finish the blanket!
Now it’s almost five years later, and I’m still knitting. Currently I’m making a blanket for a friend who is expecting her first baby, so I guess that’s why I’m feeling nostalgic. I also love the calming effect that knitting has on me. Is it the repeated, almost meditative motions? Is the the act of bringing order to chaos? Is it the creation of something beautiful? Whatever it may be, I’m glad that after all these years, I’ve finally found my crafty hobby of choice.
