I used to have a keychain that read: “My only domestic quality is that I live in a house.”
And that’s pretty much the truth. Oh, I do the domestic things that I have to do, but I don’t take much joy in them. I don’t mind cooking, but I’m not very good at it. Baking is a little better, but I don’t do that much anymore because I don’t need to eat the stuff. Cleaning takes me forever (and probably never gets completely done) because I’m always getting sidetracked by more interesting things…usually something I find to read.
And I loathe grocery shopping. That’s probably because between the things that I can’t eat and the things my mother can’t eat, it’s difficult to find anything to buy. So, between that and little detail that my mother doesn’t really like my cooking (she says that’s not true, but I can tell…she always eats more in restaurants), we eat out a lot.
But…I’m making an attempt to become a little more domestic. I’ve taken up knitting. Again.
You see, I learned how to knit when I was a teenager. I played around a little bit with it at home, along with crochet and embroidery. I even took a needlecrafts class when I was a senior in high school. Knitted a pair of slippers (that didn’t fit, as I recall). But most of that went by the wayside as I got older. I went through a period when I did a lot of counted cross stitch, and I’ll still pick up a project once in awhile.
But I hadn’t knitted in years when my best friend told me about a class at the knitting shop where she spends a lot of time (Ancient Pathways, in Fresno, CA). It was an easy class, to learn to make a feather and fan scarf. That was last summer. I took the class, finished the scarf, started another one, and…let it sit for months.
Recently, however, I got to thinking that I should have kept at it. So I got the project out and started to work on it again. And promptly screwed it up. So, I pulled it all out and started it over. Or attempted to: I discovered that I had forgotten how to cast on. A visit to Ancient Pathways (where there is always a place at the knitting table to sit and work and chat) set that problem right, and I’m almost finished with that second scarf. I’m thinking about making an afghan based on the same pattern. And I’m signed up to take another class, this time to make a bag for my laptop.
I’m determined this time. I’m going to learn how to knit more than just scarves.
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4 comments:
The cool thing about knitting these days is that you're not just limited to scarves and sweaters--there are things to house electronics (like your laptop bag! or the ipod cozy that was my second project) and even knitted models of brains and other internal organs...
OMG, John. Are there really patterns to knit brains? I'd love that...and I imagine that would get some laughs down at Ancient Pathways. That is so cool. :)
I too have tried my hand at knitting, I even referred to it once in a blog about creativity of which I claim to have none. Maybe it's just "stick-to-itiveness" that I lack.
It seems we have a lot in common. Although my mother is not living with me, the topic of what SHE can eat (she has focal dystonia of the jaw) and what I can eat enters the equation anytime we have to go on an errand that crosses over lunch time. It makes for an interesting conversation that I will have to write about some day.
Oh, I've got creativity in me...I just often don't have the talent to carry out the creative ideas I get.
Take knitting...I'll probably be fine learning the stitches and how to read patterns. But there's no way I'll ever be able to create a pattern of my own. Just like I'll never write a piece of music or paint a picture that resembles anything in this universe. :)
I figure I'm just lucky that I got the writing gene. Otherwise, I'd be talentless.
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