Ene’s Scarf: I’m half way!

I stuck out the Ene, didn’t frog it after all. I figured out where I made mistakes, decided they didn’t show and carried on.

I’m halfway done! Thank you to Madorville for showing us how to figure out what percentage of a triangle we have already knitted. Her excel spread sheet is very useful if you are wondering whether you have enough yarn. She uses the Ene as an example and reports that Row 55, the last knit row of the first time through Chart 3, is the half way point. The rows are gradually getting shorter, the pattern is easier. I can see the triangle taking shape from the double decreases running down the middle.

Now this is pleasurable knitting. There is an easy rhythm to the stitches, alternating three stitch repeats. It requires just enough attention to be interesting without being frustrating. I can relax and feel the steady flow of yarn through my fingers. This is the knitting I have in mind when I say I like to knit. In my mind’s eye I see myself one with a long line of women knitting through the centuries, sitting quietly in a sunny window, our needles moving smoothly as something beautiful takes form from the yarn in our hands. This is the way knitting should be.

I might be tempted to check Madorville's formula at the end of each knitting session, to be ever mindful of my progress, of how much longer I must knit before I will be done. But I won't! This time I refuse to rush in anticipation of reaching the end, anxious to begin the next project. I’m going to let go of my timetables and let the knitting set its own pace. I’ve worked hard to get to this point in my Ene journey. I’m going to savor it.

Knitting In The Present Moment

There always comes a time when I want the project I’m working on done so I can go on to the next one. I start making timetables and setting deadlines for myself.

“I’ll finish this section before I go to bed. I’ll do the
rest tomorrow and block it the day after,” I tell myself.

That’s what I did yesterday with my second Swallowtail Shawl. I was making good progress, had completed 14 rows of the Budding Lace 2, all that the pattern called for, but I wanted an extra 5 pattern repeats and decided yesterday was the day I’d get them done.

I started out knitting along quickly but soon realized that the third row of the pattern repeat wasn’t working. I couldn’t figure out where I’d made a mistake. I took it out a little, fixed where I thought might be a problem. But whatever problem I fixed must have been created in the unknitting and was not what needed fixing. I took it out stitch by stitch back to the very beginning of the pattern repeat, the place where I began the day’s knitting. And then I did the same thing again. And again. I surrendered and left it to sit overnight exactly as it was when I began the day’s knitting. I’d made no progress whatsoever!

Rushing knitting is a little like rushing a two-year old child. Too often what you get is a tantrum. And it really makes no sense. It would be a lot faster to bop down to Macy’s and buy a shawl.

Knitting must be done stitch by stitch. It is a spiritual discipline really. Knitting teaches me to be fully present in the here and now, not distracted by the past or concerned for the future. When I submit to its lessons, knitting each stitch in its turn, focusing on the row I’m knitting now and not the ones I’ve decided I have to get done before I go to bed, something beautiful grows in my hands.