Knitting In General

On Tuesday as I was waiting in line to vote I also kept myself and a few of the people around me entertained by knitting on a pair of socks. Since we had to wait so long to be able to cast our ballots it was actually a very productive time as I was able to work several inches on the pair and after trying them on last night realized I was now much closer to working the heel portion. And usually, I feel like it takes forever to get to that portion, whether I'm working toe up or top down.

Several people in line commented on the fact that it was nice, or that they could never do something like that or that they would never have the patience for it.

That's the part that makes me sad, is that I can knit while doing other things, so it doesn't take patience to do at all but rather gives me the patience to do so. I won't sit here and tell you that waiting for over four hours felt like nothing just because I was knitting, but I was better able to tolerate it and didn't feel uncomfortable because I had something to do. I'm at the point in my knitting life now where I always have a little project (usually socks) in my purse to work on. It also gives the the patience to sit through movies Chad might enjoy more than me.

I never thought, when I picked up knitting needles that I would enjoy knitting so much. For me it was going to be another skill because I saw a few patterns that I wanted to make that were knitted and not crocheted.

I already knew how to crochet. Mom had taught me when I was about ten I think, because I wanted to know and I saw her doing it. I played with crochet off and on but really picked it up more as I was in college and then in our first year of marriage. It was during nursing school that I decided that it was time to knit.

Oh, I really though it would be something I hated. For one thing, at the time I thought it was much harder than crochet - why would you do things with two pointy needles rather than something with a hook that helped you pull your yarn through. But much like many things that are hard to do at first - writing in cursive, riding a bike, driving, and any other type of skill in this same vein - that's just what it was, only hard at first. Time went on and I became comfortable with it. It's one of those things that just happens, you don't know when you're comfortable with it but one day you are and from there you really can't go back.

Yes, I have times when I'm doing lots of knitting and other times where nothing is moving. But it's something I love and I wouldn't change that.

The only thing I wish now is that I could teach someone to knit.