It all kind of happened out of the blue; me learning to knit.\u00a0 I had ‘sort of’ crocheted on and off for years, but nothing fancy, just blankets or squares or other things that didn’t require much direction or concentration.\u00a0 Then one day, Alisha came by and was knitting a yellow scarf.\u00a0 I remember this because I instantly hated the color – it was too loud by itself and I felt almost offended by it.\u00a0 I was curious, though, as I tend to be, and watched as she made progress (albeit a little slowly, she was still learning).<\/p>\n
Those of you that know me well should realize that it didn’t take long for my competitive nature to win over my will to not conform.<\/p>\n
Alisha complied and showed me the basic knit stitch.\u00a0 I took some acrylic yarn I had laying around and knit a square.\u00a0 I think.\u00a0 I can’t actually remember the first thing I knit, but the second was a terrible garter stitch scarf made out of some wool\/acrylic combo that I wouldn’t be caught dead with now.<\/p>\n
Well, friends, that was about 2 years and a few thousand dollars ago and I’m now utterly content to be deep in the knitter’s culture.\u00a0 I’ve gone to a knitting retreat, traveled 300 miles for a yarn store opening, I regularly stalk the Loopy Ewe, Etsy, and Woolgirl for cool new indie dyers, have a relatively good knit book collection, have dabbled in fair isle and immensely enjoy cabled projects, and I have a stash that I am not fully comfortable admitting to.\u00a0\u00a0 I have met some fantastic people through knitting, and lately I’ve been thinking about the practice of knitting as it applies to me versus the concept and practice of organized religion.<\/p>\n
First allow me to say – I mean no offense to those with deep spiritual beliefs.\u00a0 Each and every person has the right to believe whatever they so choose.\u00a0 Conveniently, that right applies to my lack of belief as well.\u00a0\u00a0 I make every effort to be respectful with friends and acquaintances when the subject of religion comes up, and when that fails I tend to either change the subject or find something else to focus my attention on.\u00a0\u00a0 I have a myriad of points I could make here, but I’ll drop it and move on to the point of this entry.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnit On, with confidence and hope, through all crises.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Above is the famous quote from Elizabeth Zimmerman.\u00a0 I’ve heard and read this quote in passing half a dozen times, but I came across it again this weekend and it got me thinking.\u00a0 How true is it, really?\u00a0 Obviously, not everyone in the world knows how to knit, but those of us who do have made it such a part of our lives that it helps to define who we are.<\/p>\n I’ve always thought knitting was a prime hobby not only because it results in beautiful, handmade items, but also because the items are useful<\/strong>.\u00a0 Many women knit prayer shawls as a way to express their concern, love, and hope for the intended recipient.\u00a0 We knit chemo caps for individuals battling the harsh effects of cancer\u00a0 and its’ treatment methods.\u00a0 We knit blankets and hats and booties for babies in the local NICU’s.\u00a0 We knit clothing for international charities and for our troops.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because across the lines of religion, we all care for the well being of others.<\/p>\n I’ve never been to a women’s church group meeting (for what I assume are obvious reasons), but I’d like to think it involves women of a certain faith, coming together on the factor they all have in common (their church), and learning from each other in all other areas of life.\u00a0 Maybe that’s sharing recipes, tips on raising a healthy and happy child, career advice, etc.\u00a0 I’ll assume it is also a way for them to learn different ways of interpreting the Bible.<\/p>\n Now, think of the parallels to your local knit night.\u00a0 We all come together on the factor we have in common, the fiber arts (knitting, crochet, spinning, etc).\u00a0 At our LYS, we have at least Baptists, Catholics, and Atheists, but I assume there are probably some Methodists, Lutherans, maybe even Jehovah’s Witnesses (apologies if I spelled that wrong).\u00a0 Religion rarely comes up and we are able to connect to each other on other levels.\u00a0 If that doesn’t compare almost exactly to the community support of a church, I don’t know what does.\u00a0 I’m sure there are some that will say that nothing could compare, and I would disagree.<\/p>\n If knitting is to be a filler for religion (even in a satirical sense), then I propose that Ravelry should be the bible.\u00a0 Not only is it full of the most useful information you might ever need, it also changes<\/strong> with the times to best serve the needs of the current population.\u00a0 You can get guidance there on anything you need and….<\/p>\n …ok this is just getting silly now.\u00a0 It’s still hard to write out what I want because I feel a bit censored (even on my own website, wtf?)<\/p>\n I guess the point is that I’ve finally found a few people that I can relate to when it comes to religion and its so nice not to feel alone on this point.\u00a0 I probably could have summed up the whole entry in that one sentence, lol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It all kind of happened out of the blue; me learning to knit.\u00a0 I had ‘sort of’ crocheted on and off for years, but nothing fancy, just blankets or squares or other things that didn’t require much direction or concentration.\u00a0 … Continue reading