wonders of knitting and crochet

What is it about knitting/crochet that’s so wonderful? It’s so relaxing and mind-settling! Just the fact that suddenly something exists that was not there a second ago, and it has only come into existence because of something I did. Each stitch is pretty pointless on its own but the yarn running through all the stitches ensures that it all adds up to something concrete and very stable. And this stability is taken for granted till just one stitch is dropped! How fast the entire project can become unravel then!

This is so much like a family that meshes together. All members of a family have to be given a chance to develop, each on their own path, with occasional inter-weaving of paths. A common thread links all the family members, however different their roles are. Care has to be taken to gather every member along on the way else the family can break down before one can blink.

I’ve never started a knitting project (how grand that sounds!) without knowing who it’s for, and as the yarn goes over my fingers for the first time, I’m already thinking about the person I’m knitting for.

So many people walked through my mind while I was making a baby blanket – the little baby’s parents, who care so much about doing all the right things and being ‘perfect’ parents, her grandparents who are dear friends of ours, their pleasure in this little new entrant into the family, the little baby herself, who I hope will be ‘snug as a bug in a rug’ like my sister said. Her life – what will it be like? Surrounded by loving family, she’s had a wonderful start and will surely go through life happily, making mistakes and learning from them as we all did.

Now I’m knitting a stole for my niece and she’s constantly in my thoughts. At the threshold of a career, she has so much ahead of her to look forward to: an education, a rewarding career, an understanding life-partner, becoming a parent. All my hopes for her happy and peaceful life are knit into something as mundane as a stole! Hopefully each time she uses it, she will think of me for a moment, and so it goes on…