My Appreciation for Fellow Knitters

I recently saw this woman on the train knitting the prettiest project in what looked like a tricky eyelet pattern. In between the various pages of the book I was reading I would look up to watch her technique as she wipped through each row. Every time I looked up (this is quite a long train ride) I noticed that quite a few people were staring at her. I am not sure what she was knitting, but it looked quite complicated and it brought me back to the first project I ever knitted...

Flashback February 2009:  So I finally finished the scarf I had been painfully working on for the last 4 months ( I didn't take a picture before giving it to my friend because this was a month before I had planned to start this blog -- )

It was my friends birthday and I decided I wanted to make her a scarf. It was my first project and I was pretty excited about it. It wasn't too complicated, but intricate, becasue I was in a definate time crunch.

See I had wasted so much time trying to find the perfect pattern that I thought would best reflect her personality and style, and I also wanted to really impress her with my new skills. So I was on the hunt for the "perfect pattern", which was a process in itself, but I finally found one.

Along the way I would show some people including my teaching guru my masterpiece. I was quite proud of my work and all the "ooos" and "awwa" I was recieving definately encouraged me. Anyway as her birthday slowly approached I began to panic because I was no where near completing the scarf. However after several late nights and over many lunch hours I finally finished with time to spare (two days to be exact). Blocked and gift wrapped, it was ready for the big reveal! Let me tell you when she opened the gift bag you would have thought she stepped in some! Okay it wasn't that bad, but that was how she made me feel after her response. When she opened it she gave me the weakest smile, and an even weaker "thank you" and that was that.

I share this tale because I don't think non-knitters really appreciate how long it takes to create a knitting project by hand. True with practice you can learn to whip through a scarf or blanket, but it still takes several hours to complete the project regardless of the pattern. So when I see a fellow knitting stylista I give her her props. It's not necessary, but I'm sure it nice to hear just the same....