I am knitting again, knitting regularly and consistently. Sitting and knitting, usually while I am watching TV, is incredibly calming and settling, but it is also energizing and exciting simply because the process of knitting, although actually slow, rhythmic, and almost meditative, also allows time for my brain to wander, depending on what I am knitting of course, not in a frenetic way, but in a smooth, swirling way, an underlying babble, like the purling of a small stream.
I have resumed the process of unpacking the sewing room, and my small cutting table has been cleared. It is in use today for blocking a sweater, the pieces of which are shown above.
I am somewhat appalled that it took me 8 months to finish this sweater, it is not difficult, but I will also admit that I ripped the first piece three times before I completely wrapped my head around the bias short rows and the technique. With time I also realized that my knitting space at the house was inadequate. I was not knitting, not due to lack of desire, but due to frustration and discomfort. I can't say it was an oversight, but it was definitely a miscalculation.
The previous owners of my house had the TV downstairs in the living room, which is not what I wanted. I had planned, all along, to turn the two smaller bedrooms upstairs into a library/television room but I wasn't ready to begin the remodel when I moved in May of 2017. I needed to live in the space, get a feel for it before making any final decisions. I have no regrets about the delay itself. Admittedly, I also questioned whether or not I wanted another large tv, if my viewing warranted it. I hadn't really been knitting much in the old house either, and television watching had become of something of a soporific, a tool for numbing an agitated mind. I moved in with only a small TV, placed in a corner of my office with a single reclining chair.
It actually took me most of that first year to realize that I had in fact made a mistake to admit to myself that I missed my large TV. In order to see on the small TV I actually had to watch it, and pay attention, I couldn't knit simultaneously. The corner absorbed sound, the small screen absorbed detail. I could either look at the tv or my knitting but could not really do both. I also, eventually realized, that the chair was a terrible knitting chair, that attempting to knit induced a crick in my neck. I wanted to knit; I dreaded knitting. The situation was untenable.
When I moved to the apartment I went ahead and bought the new large tv. I have a comfortable sofa to sit on, with a table nearby where I can put a pattern if I need it, good light. All of this is planned for the new library/tv room/office as well. And I love knitting again.
I purchased enough yarn to make a triangular shawl to match the sweater, and I am working on that now. The sweater, shown above, will be dry enough by this afternoon to begin seaming. Once the red sweater is off the board I can block the scarf I shared with you last week. Blocking will meld the stitches together and make it look "finished". Then I have a hamper full of projects that have been abandoned in various stages of partial completion. I look forward to occasional spelunking forays into that hamper, to finding and reclaiming relics of knitting past. Starting to knit again has simply been the first step, and it will not be the only fiberly pursuit, just the opening thread.
