Knitting or: How I Learned to Stop Hating and Love the Yarn

I'm super excited about the knit washcloths I am making for my soaps! I've been stocking up on organic cotton yarn and making these bad boys for weeks. Matt has been helping me knit, as always, and even designed the sweet seed stitch pattern for them. Yep, he's awesome.

a smattering of handmade organic cotton washcloths

It warms my heart a little to look at these pictures because it wasn't so long ago that I thought I'd never be a knitter. My first attempt at getting on the knitting train happened last winter when I first met Matt. I was envious of his felted slippers and he said he'd teach me how to make a pair of my very own. It started off well enough because any activity that involves drinking wine while doing it is okay by me. But the slipper pattern involved LOTS of counting and I just couldn't seem to focus on it. My slipper turned out looking, well, like some sort of a mangled version of a slipper. We had to take all the stitches out, start over and I felt like a knitting failure. I walked away thinking knitting is for suckers! Even though deep down I still wanted to be one.

Well, this winter I decided to give it another go.  We went easy this time and got back to basics--potholders, scarf, hat. No counting of stitches-just straight up knitting and purling. And it was working! They looked good. I was getting compliments. Knitting seemed less intimidating and was quickly becoming an activity I was learning to love. On snowy Flagstaff mornings I'd make myself a cup of coffee, pull out my knitting and cue up a podcast of NPR' s This American Life and geek out at how much I was enjoying this craft. I felt like I finally 'got' why people liked knitting. Something clicked.

So, fast forward to now. I'm still not a knitting guru by any stretch of the imagination. Ask Matt about the day I tried to make a baby hat with double pointed needles for the first time (shudders at the thought). But I try not to be so hard on myself about what I can't do and appreciate what I can. Knitting takes practice, like anything and I still mess up all the time. But, who cares? Most of the time I'm able to make something great, like these here washcloths. And what goes better with a bar of handmade soap than a handmade organic cotton washcloth?