So, I was thinking of what I could add to the 2010 list from yesterday. Here goes.
10. Knitting helps me to think.
This is my current Thinking Sock, which lives in the studio, and shows you what 20,000 words of a novel looks like. Whenever I get to wondering what’s going to happen next, I have a little knit. (I love that I have a job where both wondering and knitting are part of the deal.)
11. Knitting exercises your instinct.
This year, I didn’t do a lot of knitting for Christmas – it was the year of the sewing machine, mostly – but I did make a cowl from my handspun yarn for my agent.
And a hat and scarf for my editor.
With so many possibilities – yarn, pattern, colour, style – the only way to decide what to make is to trust your instinct. I’m happy to say that both were very palpable hits.
12. Knitting means you get to make really cool stuff that makes everyone smile.
Like these owl mittens, for my nieces.
13. You get to play with colours.
It’s the grown-up equivalent of colouring in. And who doesn’t love colouring in?
14. Knitting puts you in daily contact with something that reminds you how amazing the world is.
A five-minute chat with me about knitting may not reveal the full extent of my yarn snobbery, but it will give you a bit of an idea. I like to knit with natural fibres: wool, merino, silk, alpaca, cotton, even the odd bit of camel. Which means that when I pick up my knitting, what is passing through my fingers is beautiful: soft, strong, a pleasure to work with. So when I make something like this,
a scarf/shawl for my best friend, in a yarn of cashmere and silk, I get hours and hours and hours of a sense of the quiet wonder of the world.