People, I recently discovered that I knit twelve sweaters last year. TWELVE sweaters*! I quite seriously thought about not telling you that, for fear of you judging my sanity. But, alas, the truth is all out there to discover whether I state it or not - this blog, Flickr, Ravelry - I cannot hide my madness. Twelve sweaters.
I don't believe there has been a year been so full of knitting for me. 2010 was a year, though, in which all that knitting was needed. Not just to warm the arms and chests of those I love (which they are doing quite well), or to warm the hearts of those very same people (which I hope they are doing), but also for me. For we all know (or at least those of us who do the creating - in any form) that just as important as the need to wear and receive a sweater is the need to make the sweater.
In 2010, through illness, and house search, long car rides and waiting....alongside house renovations, and finishing a book, homeschooling, playdates and lessons, and in the tired early months of a new pregnancy....knitting has come along on the journey. And it's served as distraction, comfort, focus, and meditation all the way.
Knitting twelve sweaters isn't insane. It's actually part of what keeps me sane, keeps me calm and focused on the important things, and brings me present into the here and now. Pretty amazing for something as simple as wrapping some string around a couple of sticks...over and over and over again. Until there's a sweater....or twelve.
There's something else I think is important to say, in looking back at twelve sweaters in just one year amidst a life full of busy-making details. If I were to have started the year out with someone telling me I would knit twelve sweaters...or even four for that matter - I surely would have laughed or been daunted in fear at the task. But it doesn't work like that - it's small moments, one stitch here, one stitch there. A row done and then another. And that's the beauty of knitting as a life metaphor, I really do think, and why knitting can be so much more than it appears. One beautiful stitch at a time...one written page at a time...one little moment at a time...one day at a time...and suddenly, you have a beautiful, unexpected whole.
(4 Seasons Jacket, finished on New Years Eve. Knit in Sundara Sport Merino. Ravelry link for more details.)
Did I say twelve in 2010? Let's make that a lovely and uneven thirteen, shall we? I'm growing quite fond of those uneven numbers, you know.
. . . .
{*Postscript: How could I have forgetten Shalom the Second, perhaps my favorite of all? Make that thirteen...or fourteen. Oh, I don't know. A lot of sweaters.}