Awakenings

I never really had a hobby when I was growing up. It seemed like all of my friends always had some sort of practice to go to: gymnastics, dance, piano, or karate. My parents never pushed me to develop any type of artist ability, athletic skill, or any other type of talent. It did not bother me much as a six or seven year old, but it started to really hit hard by the time I was in my early teen years. This was when everyone started to really shine in their extracurricular activities. After dancing, playing piano, or doing anything else and practicing it for more than ten years, you start to become skillful and adept. Most of my friends were extremely skilled at doing something outside of school. In a way, I really envied this elite group of talented classmates.

Upon entering high school, I was determined to find a niche and do something eventful in my spare time. It did not have to be with an amazing level of skill or even be that interesting; I just wanted a hobby that was my own. Then, it happened and my creative awakening dawned on me.

One evening, I had a friend of mine over. She was the type of girl that just had her plate full at any given time. She acted, played the tuba, practiced circus moves, had a stint with Tae Kwon Do, danced a bit, and found time to take up a new crafting hobby. Crafting was something I had done a lot of when I was younger. Friendship bracelets, beaded necklaces, and swatches of knit fabric littered the bottom of my craft drawer. That evening, during my sleepover, my friend pulled out a pair of knitting needles and tacky acrylic blue yarn and I remembered how amazing it was to knit. I was taught when I was eight years old by my grandmother. At the time it was just something I did to keep myself occupied. Like any other activity meant to keep a child entertained for a short period of time, I became uninterested in knitting after a few weeks.

Watching my friend knit made me long to do it once again. I asked her if I could try to knit a few stitches just to see if I still had the necessary skills. I indeed remembered my knitting; it’s like riding a bicycle almost, once you learn it is hard to forget. We knit for a little bit and we abandoned it for other activities. As soon as she was gone, however, I dug out all of my old needles and embarked on a crafting spree.

In the weeks to follow, I insisted on buying yarn lots from eBay, visiting multiple craft stores to stock up on different types of needles, and buying different knitting books to learn new, more advanced techniques. In the weeks to follow I made many scarves and simple objects. I found a hobby that I really enjoyed and did not mind devoting my time to. This was not another phase and I did not abandon the hobby after a few weeks. I became so interested in crafting, I also taught myself how to crochet. I have created countless knit and crocheted items.

Discovering the joys of knitting served as a creative awakening for me. I did not have to be a master piano player or a ballerina on pointe, I was content with having the technical and creative skills to work with yarn to knit and crochet scarves, bags, iPod cases, and other small items. I could reconcile my need to have a certain niche, a talent that was unique, and to actualize my creative energies in one activity. Knitting is an amazing escape for me.

In the collage, I decided to feature some of my work. These are just few of the many items I have knit over the years. These are the ones I am especially proud of; the best compliment is when I am told that the items I knit look like they could have been bought in a boutique.

At the base of the collage, I have the actual knit pieces. I arranged them from left to right in order of level of expertise needed to create the pieces. At the far left is a multicolored red shawl. It is still unfinished and is attached to the needles. It is a triangular piece and features the simplest and most basic of stitches, the garter stitch. The increasing technique, which is used to give it a triangular shape, is an application of the basic stitch. To the right of that is a swatch knit in a more advanced stockinette stitch. As made apparent by the rectangular piece, this kind of stitch promotes curling. To create it, two different knitting techniques are used. The gray piece is the first scarf I created using a ribbed pattern. A rib pattern combines a few different techniques together, but it is still simple. Unlike the stockinette piece, the ribbed scarf will not curl around the edges. At the right side of the collage is my most prized piece. It is a cable knit headband that I created especially for the collage. I had ventured into cable knitting before but never applied it to anything. I attached the U shaped cable needle to the piece just to exemplify how different this style of knitting is. This piece took about 4 hours to make and many attempts for it to come out just right. I am also proud because the yarn used in the piece was recycled from a sweater. There are so many stories behind hand knit items one could never tell from just looking at them.

On top of the collection of knit goods is the basic hardware needed to start any project. On the left side of the collage, there is a yellow loop of yarn attached to stitches on the needle. This singular strand of yarn symbolizes that something simple is at the heart of an object much more complex. The loop is then attached to the needle where a series of cast on stitches can be made. This forms the foundation of the knit piece; a piece cannot be knit without these initial stitches. Moving to the right, there is yarn hanging to the left of the needles. This is the placement of the yarn in the English style of knitting. The ball of yarn on the right side is a symbol that a knitter’s only limitation should regard the amount of yarn available.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 9:44 am and is filed under