After being away from flying for almost 3 weeks, it was a little rough getting back in the jumpseat. It feels good though. I had a 3-day trip, a day off and now I'm on day 3 of a 4-day trip. Somehow, this feels more normal to me. There has been so much going on at Knitwits, that the distance helps put things in perspective.
I took up knitting when I started flying 12 years ago. My knitting has been the one constant factor in my flying career. The cities are always changing, the crew you fly with always change, the rules and procedures change, but my knitting has been my constant and loyal companion. It fills the time when flights are delayed, it makes time in the hotel room enjoyable, and I have something to show for otherwise unproductive time. Knitting quiets my brain and makes order out of chaos.
Knitting has changed me. I am a much more patient and methodical person because of knitting. Knitting is a very simple process, it becomes more complex with the desire to achieve something beyond the basic knit and purl. From the get go, knitting has been very easy for me - I just seemed to get it. I can crack the code of reading and understanding patterns, decipher charts, symbols and abbreviations, master the k2togtbls, sl1 pssos, and so on.
If only life were as easy!
When I run into a roadblock in my life, sometimes it helps me to look at the problem in terms of knitting. I set it aside for a little while, try to figure out what went wrong and assess my options. Do I have to rip out and do it over? Can this be saved? Is this going to be yet another UFO? What would Sue or Janet do?
The answers eventually come to me and I get back on track. It is usually a matter of deciding if this project is important enough to continue or if my time, energy (and yarn) are better used on something else.
I've been working on my Cocoon sweater and it is really a delight to knit. I have the sleeves and back done and I think I'll get a good portion of the front finished today. This sweater has an interesting motif on the bottom of the body. I had never done anything like it before. Who said you can't teach an old dog a new trick?
In life and in knitting, you're always making the same stupid mistakes but sometimes you learn something new. Let's keep the mistakes to a minimum and try to learn as much as we can about ourselves and our knitting!
(I wanted a picture for today's blog and I liked the knitting needles on this movie poster. The picture above is from a great movie called Young at Heart. Janet and Sarah and I saw it last summer at the Merrimont. I watched it again recently on DVD and it was just as enjoyable. )
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