Learning to knit was never something I thought about trying but my second month in on my Crafter’s Box journey I got to knit a cozy cute pillow. My mantra is to always try every medium once.
I received my box with 4 skeins of white yarn and a pillow insert (both washable, very important) and wooden knitting needles with connecting tube, along with a booklet to complete 3 different pillow patterns and a knitted blanket.
Since I was a newbie I went for the basic repeating Garter Stitch pattern. Just one simple stitch repeated back and forth back and forth till the end. Seems easy. Just starting or casting on the yard kind of took me a couple of trys. After the first row was down, turning back the other direction again seemed easy so I made a few rows and realized this is NOT a rectangle this is a triangle. I understand learning new skills you always have to make a few mistakes. But when you’re knitting how does one fix a single stitch 58 stitches ago? You start over. Unraveling stitches that took me several hours to complete was probably the hardest part of knitting. So after the first unraveling I started again. This time I was knitting a rectangle, but after knitting about ten rows, I realize that not all my loops were looked the same. SO I unraveled everything again and this repeated I think at least 5 times.
I know I tend to rush though things because I’m so excited for the end project. After painfully unraveling my hard work I decided to just get lost in the process alone in a quiet room with no distractions, rather than working a little here and there with people over or watching tv. This turned out to be the final draft if you will. I knitted more in that one sitting that I ever had before and it was turning out just perfect. I think after another 2 or 3 sittings I finally finished my big rectangle and wrapped it around the pillow inset and stitched in up. Now it sits beautifully on my bed. when people come over I’m like a proud child saying, “look I knitted this pillow myself!”.
Knitting is one of those meditative acts that can really clear your head if you let it. I have a whole new appreciation for knitting now. I don’t think i’m quite ready for any thing crazy complicated but have plans to knit the two other pillow patterns but I might just dive right into the blanket.
