Knitting Hell!

I've decided to add a new word to my cussing vocabulary - to be used in place of the very overused and infamous "F" word; it's "knit"

Back in September, if you remember from this post, I was gleefully proposing projects to tackle from a Phildar magazine and not being much of a knitter I decided to ease myself back into the game with this made-in-one-piece cardi. I say, ease myself back in - what I actually meant was throw myself in at the deep end, as the pattern is in French and I have not followed one in English for some 20 odd years!

A long road trip back to England at Christmas seemed the perfect opportunity to get started and I had the expert guidance of JW's mum to make sure my cast on row was done correctly - I'd like to point out at this point that I had already completed several inches of said project only to discover that I had been working on the old English needle size 7 and not the metric 7cm... big difference and big problem!

So here I am 3 months later just completing the first armhole shape - in this time I have unexpectedly learned how to pick up stitches that fall off the needle when in your bag, how to leave stitches to one side on a giant safety pin in the hopes they'll still be there when you need them again, how to increase and decrease, how to find out where you are in the pattern when you pick it back up again after several weeks & forgot to mark your place, how to continue with a pattern even though you somehow seem to be working it in the reverse to the image supplied and how to amuse your fellow sewing/yarn buddies with your haphazard, not-growing-very-quickly knitting project!

So why am I sharing this? Partly because I'm embracing all my imperfections and partly because I'd like to tell all my crochet and sewing students that I totally know what it feels like to be a novice at a skill everybody else makes look easy! I'm normally considered an expert when it comes to anything yarn related, afterall, I'm the one with the Textile Design degree and the one who teaches workshops and designs sewing and crochet patterns, but when it comes to knitting, it seems I am sat at the back of the class wearing a pointy yellow hat, emblazoned with a capitol D. I find that funny!

Sometimes it's important to accept that there are some things in life that you simply are a bit rubbish at and that you need to ask for help with, from someone who is more expert at it than you are. There's no need to beat yourself up about it and there's no need to feel like a failure. Enjoy the process, and with a little time and perseverance, chances are you'll get better at it until one day you'll find you have someone asking you for advice because they see you as more expert than they are

Crochet is definitely my thing, it's what I'm best at and can teach it till the cows come home - knitting is for fun and something I look forward to improving on over time. If this cardi is wearable when I eventually finish it, I will be a happy lady! My sense of achievement will be huge! I'll keep you posted!

Wish me bonne chance!

Lisa x

p.s in case you are wondering about the other projects I proposed in September's post from the above Phildar magazine, the Alpaca crochet lace effect waistcoat was started on the train journey to Paris but I decided it looked a bit like string so need to find an alternative yarn to use. The gorgeous, textured, wave crochet cardi is yet to be started!

{photos 1 and 3 by Lisa Pocklington for Get Smitten using Instagram, photos 2 and 4 taken from issue 50 of Phildar magazine}

A Stitch in Time - The 365 Knitting Clock

I do a little less knitting since becoming hooked on crochet (sorry, pun not intended!) but more and more often there are knitting related projects that catch my eye and this is certainly one of them

The 365 Knitting Clock by Siren Elise Wilhelmsen is art in motion; not quite what you were looking for in terms of everyday functionality when searching for the perfect time-piece nor for helping the kids learn to tell the time. This clock is nothing short of genius; it makes a singular stitch each half hour, thus completing one full round per day. The result is a 2m long scarf in 365 days. The Norwegian artist explains that,

"(it) was made to measure... time in a three dimensional form... to visualize the otherwise invisible time factor that connects us all. Instead of showing time in numbers... the knitting clock aims the philosophical point of the ongoing process of time... and shows the time as something that is constantly moving, changing and developing. "

As a creative person, it is all to easy to focus on the finished item - particularly if there is a client waiting for said item or an Etsy shop waiting to be filled. Sometimes the thought of the finished item, and in turn its financial reward, takes away the enjoyment of the creation; the process. I love how this piece is all about the process and that it takes a full year to produce a scarf; what a painfully long time to wait. I can just imagine the sense of impatience that would build if you watched this clock daily in anticipation of the finished scarf. Can you?

To me it signifies a rebellion against the mass produced, the quick fix and the consumerism we see so abundantly in society these days. It embodies the notion that skilled craftspeople take their time to produce their work and that this is something to be appreciated and worth waiting for; that the process of creating is as beautiful as the finished piece. The same analogy can be applied to cooking

The 365 Knitting Clock can be loaded with a new ball of yarn for each year. As a big-time yarn aficionada, this makes me smile; I like to think it means that the future is a but a ball of wool, just waiting patiently to be created into something of great beauty...

Do you enjoy and appreciate the process when you are creating?

Lisa x

{photos by Miriam Lenhart via How to be a Retronaut}