I confess last weekend I casted on at least 5 more new knitting projects…ahhhh call me crazy. Either I am super creative, addicted to knitting or I am filling my life up to the brim with knitting to keep myself sane; I think it is a combo of all 3. I seem to go through fazes when I cast on a ton of projects in a short period of time so I have about a dozen or more on the go at once- a bit overwhelming at times! How can I possibly finish all these? But I love the thrill of continually learning new patterns, trying new yarns and designing. I get excited easily over knitting and can’t wait to try new things!
So far I am doing pretty good- I seem to be rotating through projects in a calm and manageable way!
Recently I have been trying to break knitting down and understand why I am so addicted to it- what makes it so therapeutic for me? So, lately when I knit I try to catch myself thinking to be aware of my thought process. I now know if a pattern is especially complex or has a lot of layers I am usually counting in my head or thinking about the stitches, the way they fall on the needles, how fast or slow my knitting project is growing and wondering how many repetitions it will take for me to memorize a pattern. If I am designing, I am thinking about how I want the design to look, hoping it will work out, and thinking about how I should write out the pattern, what I should change or if I need to start over. If it is a simple project I tend to either think of nothing significant at all or I work through tough obstacles in my life. The fascinating thing I observed whether I am counting, zoning out or thinking of major things going on I still feel a sense of calm and I never feel negative even if my thoughts are based from negative topics.
I love knitting and I am creatively crazy about it!
the way you talk about knitting just confirm the fact that knitting is an Art and a beautiful one.
Fun read. Thanks!
Oh My Word!! I thought I’d been FOUND OUT, so I guess I CAN come out of the closet after all!! And believe me, my closets are EYE HIGH with partcial projects and bags of intended ones!! I’ve been knitting since I taught myself at ten. Forty-six years later and nothing can excite me like a new and challenging pattern!! It’s as if you were tapped into my mind through some cosmic radio wave, almost word for word what I think and how I feel. My children are grown, I have grandchildren and several siblings with children yet to fly the nest, so my test subjects are all right at hand!! I used to think knitting and chrocheting had become a lost art and was almost embarrassed to admit that I still dabbled in it. NOW the silver lining in my existance, I have my yarn work to keep my mind sharp and agile as the rest of me sucombs to a chronice neurological disease, Multiple Sclerosis. I hold my twenty odd concurrent projects high as a banner proclaiming my active mind and the viseral pleasure it gives me to think of the person getting the item as a gift and knowing the hours every inch of that thread spun through my fingers and now wraps them warwmly whenever they seek comfort! I’m a knitwit, too!