In April 2020, I found myself in an unhealthy relationship with my phone. I didn’t really notice it at first. I would check the Covid numbers and updates every few hours. However, as time progressed, I started to find myself checking for updates multiple times an hour. I would be watching TV, and would hardly even be paying attention to what was going on in the movie or show, because I was so focused on my phone. I also started finding myself going down holes, reading comment after comment on social media. I was slowly being sucked into the negativity of the world.
It wasn’t until I watched an entire movie, and couldn’t remember what happened, that I realized I had a problem on my hands. I tried to just not look at my phone, but I didn’t have the willpower. I put my phone in a different room, but was concerned I would miss something important, if someone was trying to contact me. It was like I couldn’t sit still and watch TV, without feeling guilty. I felt like I constantly needed to be doing something, but also felt like I needed to be relaxing after work. In hindsight, I think this was because of the stress and anxiety I was feeling, given everything that was going on in the world, and also how isolated I was starting to feel from my family and friends. I felt like I needed to be busy, like I needed to be distracted. However, I was letting myself be distracted by the wrong things.
Around this time, one of my coworkers was talking about their knitting hobby. I had never been a very creative person and had never taken much interest in knitting. I had memories of my grandma trying to teach me when I was really young, and how frustrated we both had gotten. However, my coworker really seemed to enjoy knitting, and I thought to myself that I didn’t really have anything else to do, and that I could give up if I didn’t like it.
So I went online to figure out what I needed. I realized for conventional knitting, I would need a lot of yarn, and also needles. For a full size blanket, upwards of eight balls of yarn were going to be required, depending on the size of the ball. I quickly realized that this was going to be an expensive hobby to get into, and started to look for ways to reduce the cost. After doing some research on the internet, I found out about arm knitting.
Arm knitting, is a knitting technique were you use your arms instead of knitting needles. You cast onto one arm, and work back and forth between arms, until you have reached your desired product. After crunching the numbers, I realized the cost would be a bit less than conventional knitting. For one thing, you didn’t need knitting needles. Furthermore, since I just wanted to knit blankets, I actually needed less yarn. This is because I was going with chunky yarn, which was much thicker than normal yarn, so less of it was needed to cover the same area. Also, I was knitting a looser style of blanket with the arm knitting technique, so I didn’t require as much yarn.
I ordered some yarn online, a cute colour that would match my parent’s house. I had decided to give arm knitting a shot, and make my mom a blanket for Mother’s Day. The yarn arrived a week later, and I got to work. I started by watching videos on YouTube, and was able to cast on to my one arm. Then I got stuck starting to move the stitches onto my other arm. Everything got knotted, so I needed to grab my scissors to cut the yarn and get my arm out, and then I started again. I had to start over at least five times with my first blanket.
Eventually, after much trial and error, and much use of the scissors, I was able to figure out how to move the stitches from arm to arm, in order to grow the blanket. Once I got going, I realized that it went quite fast. I also realized that I couldn’t use my phone and knit at the same time. So I turned on a movie, and knit the blanket. Because I was doing something besides just sitting, I was able to watch the movie without feeling guilty, and was actually pay attention to the plot. Knitting didn’t require me to think, or to read. Plus, once I got the hang of it, it actually made me feel less stress than when I had started.
Once I reached the end of the blanket, I again needed to use my scissors to cut the blanket from the ball of wool, and discretely knotted it as they had shown me in the YouTube video. I looked down at the blanket, and felt quite a bit of pride at what I had created. When Mother’s Day arrived, I did a porch drop off to give the gift to my mom. She loved it, and she thought I had bought it from a store! It looked so good, she didn’t think it was handmade. When I told her that I actually made it myself, she was both shocked and proud, because she also knew that I had never really been that creative or crafty.
It is now a full year later, and I am the creator of more than ten blankets that I arm knit. Several are sitting in my house, as gifts to myself. Several I also have gifted to other people for birthdays, Christmas, and other celebrations. Arm knitting has been an immense help for me to deal with the pandemic, and the stress and anxiety it has created in my life and the world. I wanted to end off this article with five lessons that arm knitting has taught me about myself and about life.
- Not knowing how to do something isn’t a good enough reason not learn how to do it.
- It’s okay if you don’t do it perfectly the first time. Being perfect is not as important as believing in yourself. If you believe in yourself, you won’t quit.
- Sometimes starting over doesn’t mean giving up on what you started, or that you have failed. Sometimes starting over just means going back to the beginning of the project or situation, with new knowledge and an open mind, and try again.
- Finding a hobby that you can do with your hands, leaves space and opportunity for your mind to rest.
- Giving ourselves permission to quit at the start of something new, can give us the courage to see it through.
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About the Creator
Joyce Kay
Practicing creativity
Instagram: @joycekaywriting
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