Trying Something New…

The holidays can be a stressful time of the year between shopping, parties, in-laws and expectations. This year was no exception. I once again made my lists, checked them twice (forgot to bring them with me when I went shopping), shopped rogue and finished. I made it through Christmas. Everyone was happy, surprised and satisfied, or so I thought…

Two days after Christmas, I woke up feeling proud of myself. I survived another holiday! I went downstairs and made myself a cup of coffee. I went to sit down in my comfy chair, turned on the TV and just as I was about to take my first sip, my daughter asks me, “Can you take me to Jo-Ann’s?”

So, I ask why and she says, “Because I want to buy some knitting supplies.” At that moment, I felt an anxiety attack coming on. Knitting?! Are you kidding me? I can barely sew a button and now I have to figure out this? I mean, I’m a crafty person, but knitting??? Not so much. Of course, I remain calm on the outside and say, “OK, we’ll try to find some time to go to the store this week.” Translation, I was hoping she would forget or move onto something else. But as all stories go, she didn’t forget. She continued to ask and finally broke me.

We go to Jo-Ann’s and I can feel my blood pressure rising and as we walk into the store, I can hear the music to Psycho playing and with each chord, my eyes look at the all the yarn on the back wall and it felt as if it was zooming in and out just like the movies. But before I can react, both of my daughters are running towards the yarn with a shopping cart! They are picking all types of yarns in different colors and putting them in the cart and then running to the needles aisle and picking them based on colors, nothing else. The music is growing louder in my head and at the climax and say “Wow! There are so many choices!!” It was possibly a little louder than I meant it to be.

I took a deep breath and said, “I think we need to read the label to match yarn with needle size” and as I’m saying it, I’m thinking where did that come from? Is this right? Should I call my friend who is an expert knitter? No, she’s in Hawaii. But she’d love this. I picture her with her phone ready to take my call. “Go for yarn!” I laugh to myself and realize how silly I’m being. I’m intelligent. I can figure this out. Or can I?

We decide our first project will be a scarf and pick the proper yarn and needles. We get home and Ashley looks on YouTube for a tutorial video and starts. A little while later, she has figured out how to start and within an hour she has a few rows done. I’m impressed. She asks if she can show me but I nicely declined (because I thought I could never learn to do this) and kept myself busy doing almost anything else. I watch the next few days as she knits row after row and finally I break down and ask her to show me. She is so excited and says, “I’m going to show you what casting is.” I’m confused, I thought that meant picking parts for a show but to my surprise, it’s how you start knitting.   

So, I started my own scarf. I continued for the duration of the holiday season, but sadly, once the New Year began, so did my normal schedule and back in the bag it went. I never finished it and my other daughter never finished hers, but Ashley to this day continues to knit and enjoys it, which is all that matters.