When you pray, move your feet

[cosmolinguist]

(an LJ Idol entry)

To knit, you need to start with knitting needles, of course. I have some a friend bought for me, and some another friend gave me that used to belong to her grandmother. (Knitting's a bit like time-travel, that way, as timeless things can be.)

You make a slip knot and loop it around one of the needles to start casting on. I'm not good with knots but I can do this because my grandma showed me an easy way when I was little and she was showing me and my brother how to chain stitch. She crocheted me many blankets and mittens on strings to go in my jacket so I wouldn't lose them, and hats with tassels on, and dresses for my Cabbage Patch Kids. I still haven't gotten further than that chain stitch.

Knitting was suggested to me by my a boyfriend's mom. She sent me the pattern to make a hat she'd seen me admiring, that her son had made. The simple instructions were enough for me to figure out knitting, if not purling -- after the usual number of lumpy hole-filled false starts -- but the purl stitch continued to stymie me so I never got the hat made.

The first thing I finally knitted was supposed to be a scarf for my girlfriend. It expanded more than I thought it would! Made a nice shawl. I grinned when I saw her wearing it.

I sat in a pub with a friend who taught me how to purl, and I taught her how to crochet a chain stitch. I drank a pint of stout and reveled in ignoring gender norms.

I've knit hats and scarves for homeless people and want to try "knitted knockers" for people who've had masectomies and hats and blankets for babies lost very young, even jumpers for penguins caught in oil spills.

I grew up with Catholic rosaries, and I've kept the repetitive hand movements and murmuring, but instead of holy words I'm counting stitiches, reminding myself of how far I've gotten and how far there still is to go. Instead of meditating on mysteries sorrowful or glorious, I'm thinking of grandmothers and friends and penguins, stitching up some of the wounds in the world as methodically as grain is planted, as babies are rocked to sleep, as dishes are washed, as feet are moved one in front of the other to get us anywhere...

And so life is lived.

Comments

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

nice analogy! Love the idea that knitting is time travel :)

[cosmolinguist]

I can't help but think about what a crazy idea it must have been when it was first developed. Such an intricate thing, so simple -- just tying knots in string, really, with the sticks there to help you do this -- but it works so well.

Plus it's something that a lot of people learn from an older generation, and that makes me think it's like time travel; it's a connection I have with grandmothers and people I don't even know, something they'd recognize about my life amidst the laptop and the microwave and everything more modern.

[mstrobel.livejournal.com]

I knit a scarf for one of my best friends last year... it also totally ended up as this mammoth shawl. Oops. I still have to get my mother to cast on and off for me as well *shame*

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah but life is all about interdependence. One of the things I like about knitting is how it reminds me of this: no knitter is an island :) Everything's connected.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

However, as a responsible knitter, I'd have to ask you to not knit jumpers for penguins just because it's cute or because a yarn shop says you should. "It's probably only going to stress [the penguins] out even more" (http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/news/penguin-sweaters-wont-be-used/1145547/) - they're not being used in NZ. Respond to appeals run by those on the ground helping, but not to those run by third parties who just think it's a good idea. :)

[cosmolinguist]

::nods:: It does sound too tweely-estily perfect to be real, doesn't it? :)

[kickthehobbit.livejournal.com]

I really love this—the knitting compared to counting beads, and the final line of the piece really do it for me. :)

And I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who knits in pubs!

[cosmolinguist]

Definitely not. I used to go to a knitting group that met in my local, a proper old-man pub with pint-pots and usually a dog around somewhere.

[standgale.livejournal.com]

nice, I like this. Like you say, I find it interesting how a very few things, like knitting needles, can be passed down through generations and be used exactly as they were originally. There's almost nothing like that anymore, things change so fast.
Knitters are each a knit or purl stitch in the knitted fabric of life, on the yarn of time ;)

[cosmolinguist]

The yarn of time! What an intriguing idea (sounds like something from Doctor Who)...

[nodressrehersal.livejournal.com]

Love it. Nice job.

[shadowwolf13]

Knitting is so soothing for me, even when it's a pattern that drives me bonkers. I love watching the yarn form patters and watching how the colors stack up. :)

[cosmolinguist]

Oh yeah, there's a lot of swearing in my knitting too :) But the sacred is never far from the profane, I reckon.

[cosmolinguist]

I think between the rosary-type connection and the way it inspires ruminations on ancestors, I'm surprised I hadn't thought of this metaphor before.

[barrelofrain.livejournal.com]

I love the comparison between knitting and counting the rosary. There's definitely something connecting there.

[cosmolinguist]

The beads are something that's mentally and emotionally satisfying to humans, and the similarly repetitive mechanics of knitting are necessary and practical, so they are instigated by opposing motivations (you could call one "praying" and the other "moving your feet"), and that's what makes the connection so interesting.

[myrna-bird.livejournal.com]

I can't resist saying that your knitting feels like maybe the joyful mysteries to me. Nice entry.

[cosmolinguist]

The joy is in the lack of mystery here, though :)

[basric.livejournal.com]

Nicely written. Well done.

[cosmolinguist]

Thank you! For both commenting and reading.

[poppetawoppet.livejournal.com]

I'm a knitter too, but much to my mum's constant irritation, knit to gauge and finish things quite beautifully :D

[cosmolinguist]

I do nothing beautifully, but that's just as well when I seem to lose every hat and pair of mittens I make. Quick and dirty suits me :)

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

Very neat how you connect knitting into something so much more! I'm not a knitter, but this made for an interesting read! I want to knit jumpers for penguins now...

[cosmolinguist]

Just as well -- penguins don't really need sweaters after all :) But there are plenty of ways to make the world a cozier place, knitting's just one of my favorites.

[karmasoup.livejournal.com]

Knitting has become somewhat curiously popular amongst folks in my social circle in the oddest way, because, it's not a activity to which I would normally expect geeks and nerds to espouse. I've heard from among a few of them that it helps to keep their fingers active, and prevent them from fidgeting when their mind is otherwise overrun with too many thoughts. I have never taken it on, myself, but I do enjoy having people I'm close to create crazy, fun, geeky things. Thanks for this perspective.

[cosmolinguist]

it helps to keep their fingers active, and prevent them from fidgeting when their mind is otherwise overrun with too many thoughts

Absolutely. Knitting is a thing I really got into when my anxiety disorder got so bad I couldn't even work. I wasn't sleeping properly so I was tired all the time, but I was so restless I couldn't sit still. Knitting strikes the perfect balance of giving me something engrossing, a good channel for that nervous energy I did have, but not as exhausting as....pretty much anything else would be.

And there certainly are some incredibly geeky ways to enjoy knitting; I can recommend this blog to all your geeky knitting friends. I'm working on the DNA illusion scarf from there :)

Thanks for reading!