Knitting speaks louder than words

The need to knit is strong. The craft brings people together and offers a sense of calm.

from the December 5, 2007 edition

Page 2 of 2

Page 1 | 2

A recent move from the Midwest to the South sapped more than my confidence. With my thought already full of details about the sale of one house, purchase of another, and the move from one to the other, the need to knit overwhelmed me. I couldn't concentrate long enough to follow a pattern; I simply needed to knit.

With some wonderfully forgiving yarn that makes anything look special, I cast on stitches. Forty, 50 – it didn't matter. Enough stitches to keep me happy. And I sat, knitting the stitches from one needle to the next while my head whirled with thoughts of this new life ahead of me. No purl, no counting, no thought of what I was making. Just knit, knit, knit.

When the end of the skein appeared, I cast off the stitches and gazed at the thing I had created.

My blue-collar work ethic requires that everything be useful. So, I took one more look at the rectangle, admiring the even stitches, and then I knew. "It's a cat's blanket."

And with that declaration, I reached for another skein of yarn. Four cats needed traveling blankets, and my soul needed lots of knitting as I unraveled our home and knitted it together again in a strange land.

Today, young women have discovered the edginess of knitting as well as the soothing feel of stitches sliding from one needle to the next. Speakers and lecturers, preachers and teachers tell of spotting people of all ages listening and knitting in time to the words' rhythm.

My son, a heavy-metal musician, describes girls at the concerts, heads bobbing and bodies gyrating while knitting, knitting, knitting to the bash-and-groan beat. Their knitting needles, as fat as nunchuks, wobble and click, turning yarn, thread, and ribbon into something as edgy as the music.

Women of all ages and backgrounds – and yes, men, too – pick up needles and gather in knitting groups and classes.

Peggy, who introduced me to the cupcakes, helped a master knitter teach a group of young women the basics of the craft. This group began with only five or six members but has grown to more than 20.

Knitting begins with needles and yarn, but with each stitch, something else seems to grow – determination, confidence, solace, even a community.

Maybe we can knit and purl a peaceful world.

I feel the need to knit.

1 | Page 2