Rooftop Knitting

Knitting is a big thing for me. My friends will know I am not a closet knitter, but a scream out loud from the rooftops knitter. It is one of the activities that gives me a gauge to measure my wellness. There might be months through the year when I don't pick up needles and yarn, there might be months through the year when I hold them every day. This is the gauge that tells me my health. Cognitive processes are involved. If I am well- so that my arms are quite fit- I might zoom across three or four rows without thinking twice. This is all very well but I might therefore have forgotten a patterned row, or a change of colour have to sit with great concentration and unpick my efforts-this is when my cognitive and physical wellness don't quite match! An easier project will mean I can knit without thinking- so much of my knitting is ingrained; I am an auto-pilot knitter. I have even been known to totally astonish myself with knitting a lace or cable pattern on auto-pilot. The months when I don't knit are usually enforced. If I knit for a couple of short sessions each day, sometimes I can do nothing else helpful or useful. My husband becomes the carer and the bearer! If I am counting stitches and he interrupts me, he takes the brunt of it. This is when I put it down, zip up the bag and hide it.
December last year was the last time I really attempted anything for myself. I was in love with my pattern, a fairIsle cardigan. But my OH was bearing too much! It was hidden. About a month later a friend asked me to knit a cardigan. It was an easier knit, being in a single colour, but it took a long time; four months for one project is unusual for me. There were weeks when I couldn't pick up the needles, just through lack of strength in my arms, weeks when I would try and abandon the attempt after 10 minutes as my brain couldn't fathom what I was doing and weeks when I might manage 3 or 4 sessions of 20-30 minutes. Having achieved that and also finished a baby blanket for another friend, I know I have a bit more time and energy to give to such a project.
So I have reached out to my dearest wool shop, found a pattern that requires time and patience and that I will enjoy. It is for me, it will give me an achievable goal. Twenty or thirty minutes of knitting here and there is a challenge, a smile, a glimpse; to sit in bed or under a blanket on the sofa and knit is something that reminds me of home, something that reminds me of all the years when I have struggled, persevered and achieved. Knitting and sewing have kept me going over the years. Small projects with little goals are perfect to motivate me through the good days and the not-so-good days. I am looking forward to wearing my french navy, wool tweed, shawl collared, short, double breasted, nipped in at the waist, front cabled with moss stitch cardigan by next Autumn. I will achieve it, I will give it my time and patience.