Knitting away

Until a couple of years ago, I used to smoke. I wasn’t a chain smoker, but I was a fairly constant one. When I finally decided to quit, I had to find something to replace my cigarette with, and I found that knitting could do the job.

Fortunately, I was a surreptitious smoker. I would generally only smoke at home, by myself and away from my children – and definitely not in front of my grandchild. What kind of example would I be setting as a grandmother? Therefore, quitting this habit was not extremely difficult.

However, one of the most delicious cigarettes of the day was the one I smoked when I came home after work as I sat down to watch television. One day I found that the ritual of lighting a cigarette could be replaced with a bit of yarn, a couple of knitting needles and the instructions to learn a new pattern. Ever since, I haven’t stopped knitting small squares that I then put together to make cozy throws.

I love to knit squares because they keep my hands busy, they don’t demand too much concentration, and at the same time they are a bit of a mental exercise because after a certain number of squares I change the pattern and I look for a new one to learn. Once I find the rhythm to the pattern, it becomes a very soothing activity.

I discovered that this ancient art of knitting can work to calm your mind, to allow you to think, to dream and to remember. Counting the stitches, concentrating on the movement of the needles, feeling the texture and the tautness of the yarn, enjoying the colors, minding not to lose a stitch along the way demands just enough attention so as to have part of your mind occupied with this activity, while leaving the rest of it free to fly to those parts where your imagination is lodged away.

Fortunately, I have no desire to smoke anymore and in exchange I picked up this wonderful knitting habit, which is great during winter afternoons and allows me to create little blankets where each stitch carries a little bit of me.