craft

Back when life was simple, I used to spend school breaks on my grandparent's farm. My grandmother would keep me and my sister busy by enrolling us in knitting projects. She worked in the local college and I have memories of sitting in the lobby knitting and purling my way to a pair of slippers. Evenings would be spent under Scottish wool blankets watching TV with my grandmother's clickity clacket knitting ticking off the stitches hummed in the background.

I don't know why I dropped it all these years later. I wish I hadn't though. I could have used something to do with my "devil makes work for idle" hands. I think it was a lack of really cool yarn shops and the non development of bamboo needles. But knitting and crafting has had a resurgence. Knit groups are popping up. Shops with great names like

Purl- NYC
The Knit Cafe- Toronto
Three Bags Full- Vancouver
Lettuce Knit- Toronto

Ewe get the picture... Knitting is cool again and Alpaca is the new wool. What's behind it? I don't know. I desire to get a few steps back from the complexities of 21st century life? I think so maybe. Most of life is quite immediate. Cell phone, emails, texts, the Internet- it all keeps us plugged in to info and ideas in an immediate time frame. Knitting is like meditation with motion and in the end you get a pair of mittens.

And so, I signed up for a class and the next ting I know- 3 weeks later, I've mastered the cast on, cast off, knit, purl, stocking stitch, seed stick, ribbed stitch, basket weave and now circular knitting. I have 3 new pairs of knitting needles and $100 in yarn and now all I want for Christmas is socks.. lessons that is. It was the best thing I've done and I'm enjoying it and every now and then I can transport myself to the living room on the farm and that special air and quiet except for my grandmother's clickity clackets.