Knitting Day!

I do so look forward to Friday mornings, when I can gather up the week's yarn projects, throw them in a bag and go share a few hours with my knitting buddies!

Someone always has something interesting to show, and I always learn a new trick or two. Last week, Dot was doing seed stitch, something I don't particularly like because it requires you to be constantly throwing the yarn strand back and forth. That's when we noticed for the first time that Dot doesn't knit like us! She knits in "Continental Style," holding the yarn in her left hand, rather than the right, and knits in a very fast, smooth way without all the motion in the right hand that the rest of us do.

She explained that when she first came to class and learned to knit again after a 30-year vacation, it all seemed so awkward to her. After struggling for a few hours, her hands suddenly "remembered" the way her grandmother had taught her those many years before, and it all came back. She tried mightily to teach us her automatic muscle-memory style, and we tried mightily to imitate her. But it's going to take a lot of practice to learn this new way until it clicks for me. If it ever does. Trying to re-train the brain to do a muscle skill in a different way is a major challenge.

I liken it to playing the piano--if I flub a section and stop, most times I can't pick up right where I left off; I have to go back to the beginning. It's as if my fingers know it unconsciously, while my brain is coasting along in neutral.

We do so many tasks automatically--brushing our teeth, tying our shoes. We forget that these skills had to be learned with painstaking effort. One mental-exercise book I read actually suggested that we take these automatic tasks and consciously try to do them differently. The first time I tried to brush my teeth with my left hand, I ended up with toothpaste all over my chin!

So today, I will start a knit-stitch only project (with my new yarn!) and attempt to practice Dot's new technique. In the long run, it will be easier and save hand motions. In the short term, I know it's going to frustrate me to the point of exasperation. But it's good to have a challenge, and it's good to have friends to share it with.