Consistency

There are so many sweaters on my wish list.  I put them there in the first moments of passion and then let them linger to see if we are going to have a longer-term relationship.  They wait in my favorites on Ravelry like wall flowers at a dance. I am astonished at how quickly I can lose interest in some patterns that I thought I couldn’t live without.  Other patterns linger because I am waiting for the right time to start or saving up the money for the yarn or until I finish the sweater almost done on the needles.  I tend to get ahead of myself.  I like to start but then I struggle being loyal to one project over the long haul. Then I started watching Fruity Knitting.

     I discovered this podcast on the Modern Daily Knitting website.  They referred to a specific episode and I clicked on the link.  I was mesmerized.  I watched all four years of episodes and marveled at how productive Andrea was with her knitting.  Andrea is a monogamous knitter.  I don’t know too many monogamous knitters, but she had a laser like focus on her specific project.  She shared all of her learnings, mistakes, and progress with her viewers which made me start at episode 1 and watch them in order.

     I know that consistency produces results.  I’ve experienced this in all aspects of my life, diet, exercise, writing, working, and knitting!  Last summer, I limited myself to one project at a time until it was finished.  I liked the satisfaction of weaving in the last end and celebrating the finished garment.  I started a knitting journal and recorded my observations of the knitting process for that garment.  What was difficult?  Was there a slow part?  What did I like about knitting it?  What did I learn?  What would I do differently next time?  I started to learn, and I became a better knitter.  It was one long uninterrupted process followed by some deep reflection that pushed me to be better.

     Consistency in my prayer life followed by some deep reflection has helped push me forward on my spiritual path.  I pray each day and then I listen to what comes up.  Sometimes it’s questions, sometimes it’s a revelation and sometimes it’s nothing.  As I read my reflections through time, I see how I have changed.  Change can be difficult to measure just like those few rows that don’t really seem to make a difference, but they do.  We notice through time.

     I learned that from Andrea.  She was attentive to her project, she was willing to learn from her mistakes, or take something out because she wasn’t satisfied.  She shared her knowledge of modifications and joked about her preferences.  She went looking for experts, the right teachers to shed light on some of the more advanced methods of the craft.  Her knitting evolved.

     Andrea persuaded her husband, Andrew to knit and it was fun to see him go from a beginner painfully making one slow stitch after another to knitting some pretty cool stuff.  Their dialogue with each other was amusing and lighthearted, just what I needed as I knitted through the pandemic.

    Then Andrew got sick with brain cancer.  After spending many hours watching them, I felt like I knew them.  They had become public people through their podcast on YouTube.  They have gracefully shared their struggles during what must be a horrific time for them.  Andrew is receiving experimental treatment at a clinic in Germany.  Andrea is still knitting and podcasting.  They ask for our prayers.

4 rows of stockinette 4 rows of seed stitch and then duplicate stitch LOVE.