Writing Assignment

The sweater looks about the same with a few inches more body since I last took photos. While we wait for things to get more interesting, here's an exercise I wrote for my writing group last week. I do have a few photos of recent yarn purchases to liven things up.

As the first light showed on the horizon I felt energized yet calm. For hours, with only short breaks, I'd sat in this chair and knit.

My emotions resembled those of a 'runner's high' produced by the release of endorphins after long exertion. This high, though, lacked the giddy skittishness of the exercise-induced state. Brought on by repetitive motions, the mood was more Zen than manic.

   

The next day my hands would feel stiff, a bit sore, but then they moved easily through  the stockinette repetition. The yarn fed smoothly over my fingers. No mistakes slowed my progress.

Tomorrow, also, I would walk onto the ferry and ride across the Sound to knitting circle at the island yarn store. There, after some manic knitting to reach the crucial point, I would separate the sleeves from the body and turn this formless lump of the beginning of a top-down sweater into something recognizably a garment.

Eventually I need to fix the one mistake I found in the marathon of stitches. I'll ladder two columns of stitches down a few inches, move an incorrectly placed yarn-over one column to the right, and chain the stitches back up to the working row.

These moves will require attention and calm. They will not leave me feeling Zen. Instead, I'll feel accomplishment after the challenge -- or not.

When I wear the completed sweater I can reply to questions that, yes, I did make it myself. The pattern, actually, is my own based on a template. Oh, yes, I do like to design my own work and have more ideas than time to knit them -- sketchbooks full of sweater drawings.

If the questioner knits, we may discuss the picot hems I chose and the use of yarn-overs to make a lacy pattern of increases along the raglan sleeve line. We could pass on tips or compare favorite techniques.

And I will remember the feeling of sitting in this chair where I now write, watching the sun rise as I knit, and knit, and knit.

    

No, I haven't fixed the misplaced yarn-over yet -- tomorrow.

Comments

[Karen B.]

Nicely done. It reminds me that I should work on my writing...