Knitting update
(Did you hear knitting reduces cortisol?)
I had intended to update you last week about my Great Knitting Project of 2025-2026, but then Strike Day happened. After finishing a big portion of the knitting over the year end break, I had emerged from my stitching coma the beginning of January to enact all my resolutions, intentions, responsibilities and, no doubt frivolities. And though I have been back to work most of the month of January, only sneaking in a few rows of knitting on a snowy eve, last Friday, on Strike Day, I decided to sit myself by the wood-burning stove to knit, all day, with a book on tape reading in the background.
I think the entire country needed a knitting day by the fire that day.
My strike day saw me finishing the final sleeve, and I even got started with the most exciting part of the project — assembling the sleeves, front, and back, and adding edges and shape. That’s when updating you, dear readers, took a back seat to me completing the project.
By the end of Strike Day, completion was so near that Saturday morning the knitting continued. But each step towards the finishing line required hundreds of stitches. Hours went by as I picked up stitches to knit the sides and arms together, then adding ribbing to the ends of the sleeves, the bottom of the sweater, and around the neck — each in a different color. At one point, I had to rip out the yellow neck because I’d made it too tight to fit around my head — so I pulled the stitches and carefully cast back on the loops without dropping any, to reknit it!
More logs on the fire. Maybe time to choose another book on tape.
Last weekend was still very cold outside, too cold for a Sunday show-shoe outing. So the knitting project continued all Sunday as well, hour by hour bringing me closer and closer to completion. I didn’t fight it, spending the entire weekend with my needles, yarn, and the fire. By Sunday evening I was weaving the ends into hiding — thinking that I was finally done, and that last step would take no time at all — but every four rows has 2 yarn ends, so again, hundreds of yarn ends to carefully bury into the back of the sweater — taking care they don’t poke out the other side.
Since the yarn ends live on the inside of the sweater, out of public eye and unbeknownst to all but the person wearing the garment, it is doubly frustrating to spend hours on this process of weaving them into the sweater. So, full disclosure, when Monday rolled around, the sweater still not fully completed, I got back to normally scheduled activities, and do hope to resume this never-ending task, before Spring comes. It will be very satisfying when I take the sweater on and off, to know there is not a single loose end dangling, the body pleasingly stretchy, and just a few errors here and there to remind us all I am human.
Meanwhile, because the neck had been too tight to get the sweater over my head until I reknit it, I had practically completed this opus before I could even try it on and see if it fit — indeed, the odds that my knitting projects actually fit me are slim: my sizing is often off — to the delight of my mother and daughters who, like Cinderellas, are often the beneficiaries of these projects!
But behold, when the neck was redone to the correct stretch factor, and I was finally able to try it on, the sweater felt just right: miraculously, the ribbed cuffs somewhat solved the problem that the sleeves were otherwise VERY long. Although I still haven’t entirely completed the excruciating task of weaving in every end, here I am modeling my crowning opus.
During the process of knitting this sweater (I started it just before Christmas), knitting has gradually been making more and more headlines. The knitting shop Needle & Skein, in the Twin Cities, is raising money to distribute to those impacted by the actions of ICE, in exchange for the knitting pattern of a red, tassled hat inspired by resistance to Nazi Germany in the 1940s. There are also articles about knitting as a form of protest. My daughter mentioned that at art school knitting had been discussed as a forgotten art.
I will always remember the history knitted into this garment when I wear it. The emotions that were processed during its making are all held in its DNA, carrying the memory of the deep cold of this winter, the snow, the ice, the Ice, my family time, and everything else that happened, particularly this month in the Twin Cities, my father’s home town, and here in Maine.
In solidarity, and in protest, and in healing, let’s knit.
Great sweater and really dig the hat. Looking good
Love Maine!!!