Knitting with Toothpicks

Have you ever attempted a knitting project that seemed well beyond your ability?  Some of the ladies at my yarn store, where I teach, said “Fair Isle is all the rage and we need classes on it, oh and Paula you will do it right?”  My response was, “of course I will.”  I have not knit very much Fair Isle nor am I an expert with it, so I decided to get educated.  I searched for beautiful patterns and landed on what I thought would be the perfect hat and mitten project.  My idea was to do a few smaller projects and work our way up to a sweater.  I laid out the calendar and we started advertising.  Then I started knitting.  Well let me just say that you have never experienced knitting until you knit on a size 0 needles.

I don’t even know why they make size 0 needles because if you really wanted to use a needle that small you could just look in the cupboard and use a toothpick. I realized quickly that I should have looked at the pattern a little closer before I committed myself to teaching a class on this project.  A few rows into the hat I was struggling, not so much because of the fair isle pattern but simply the size of the needles.  Now in order to put this into perspective I want you to understand what I like to knit.  I love to felt my knitting.  When you felt you use big yarn and big needles and you let the washing machine do the work of shrinking it.

I was determined to finish this hat, so I kept knitting and kept knitting.  I knit on that hat for weeks although I felt like I got nowhere.  This project requires your utmost attention, so it was a real struggle to work on it in the evenings after a long day at work.  It was becoming clear that this project was not going to get done in time for the class, so I postponed the class.  In fact, I was so frustrated with this project I decided to put it in ‘time out’.  You know, let it sit there and cool off for a period of time until you decide it is worthy enough to work on again.  Well, I did let that project sit there for a long time.  We decided to travel for Thanksgiving, and I took that project with me to work on in the car.  I decided I had to finish this during our travel time, I was in fact giving myself a time limit!  I diligently worked on it on the way to our celebration and on the way back I remember thinking to myself “I wonder if I can finish?” 

Well, we live in Colorado where the weather can be very unpredictable even when the weather forecaster gets the forecast right.  We were traveling over the Rocky Mountains and the weather forecast was not good for our trip home.  As it turns out I did have time to finish that hat because we were stranded on the highway for hours waiting for the roads to open due to snow and major accidents.  That little extra time waiting, and waiting was enough for me to finish.  Now I am not sure if I finished because of sheer determination or the fact that there was not anything else to do for four hours as we waited for the road to open.  But I can tell you that I was proud when I finished and the best part of finishing that project was my daughter said she wanted the hat!  I was thrilled that she liked it.

Now don’t forget that this project also included a pair of mittens.  Right after Christmas I started on the mittens.  I thought they would be easier because they were not as wide around as the hat.  They would go much faster!  Well the mittens were knit entirely on size 0 needles.  At least with the hat I was able to go up a needle size for the fair isle part.  So, I knit and knit and knit…. size 0 needles do not make that big of a stitch, so it does not go very fast.  I struggled with the thumb part because the pattern doesn’t give very good directions!  I also struggled with the decrease on the mittens because you guessed it, size 0 needles do not make decreasing very easy.  I broke two sets of needles during the decrease on the first mitten.  Oh, and by the way, when I went to my next knitting guild meeting someone told me I should only use metal needles in size 0!  Great, thanks for that!  Then why do they make them in wood?

This project definitely took perseverance and what it really taught me was that I work well with accountability.  If I didn’t have a class to keep preparing for, I would have never finished this project.  As I watched my students work on their project, I was amazed!  Once they got going, they struggled less than I did.  They were amazing and also persevered as this project was extremely difficult.  Maybe the accountability they had to me and to the class is also what kept them going.  I have felt many times that I, as the teacher, learn as much as the student during the class.  I learn great tips and ideas from my students.

So, my friends, knit with perseverance and accountability.  It will keep you stretching and learning in your knitting.  Find a class or a partner to help you keep on track.  Find a difficult project to keep your mind sharp and your needles moving and knit it with a friend so you can help and encourage each other on the way.

Knit with Love my Friend,