Maybe I'm remembering this all wrong because I haven't seen it in at least ten years, but in the movie Like Water For Chocolate there is a scene where a carriage starts off down a dusty road and you see it leaving from behind, and out of the back unfurls an impossibly long blanket that the main character has knit out of her grief and sorrow. It trails on forever in the dirt behind the speeding carriage.
It's a funny moment, and I get it. I learned to knit many, many years ago when I was still very young and it was definitely not the cool thing to be doing like it maybe kind of is now in some DIY circles. I learned at a time when I was a little bit lost, from someone who was incredibly good to me in so many ways, and I feel all of that love return to me each time I pick up my needles. She gave me much more than the time and patience it took to instruct me (not a fast learner!). Knitting suffuses my world with a sunny peace when I'm happy. But more crucially, it steadies me through sorrow. It's a way of enduring sadness, a place to put it, and when I come out on the other side I've made something hopefully pretty but in the very least useful.
So I knit a lot. Thank goodness I now have children to foist it all upon! I don't know what I'll do once they start refusing to wear and use all the things their crazy mama makes, but right now it's wonderful. The baby can't protest, of course, and the elder... well, the elder continues to disarm me by actually asking me to make him things and seeming rather pleased when they are finished.
Wending my way to what got me thinking about all this in the first place, I know it doesn't sound very rock n' roll but knitting is closely tied to listening for me because it gives my hands something to do while my head gets lost in lyrics and music and the gorgeousness of it all. The past two weeks on the Contrast Podcast have been all about new music and I really enjoyed both 'casts (listen here and here). I played a song by Phoenix but I flirted with the idea of submitting this one by Vetiver. It's from their most recent album Tight Knit which I've grown attached to as it's full of lovely tunes and this one is catchy and infectious and has much more bounce to it than I somehow expect from them and it's very frequently on repeat over here, no matter what I'm doing.
Vetiver - More Of This
Mrs Young is an avid knitter too and has been making lots of things for the baby already. :)
Posted by: Tim | April 26, 2009 at 11:45 AM
this is beautiful, greer. i love the idea of putting your sorrow somewhere. thank you. : )
p.s. i could never knit. crochet, yes, a little, but knitting was beyond me . . .
Posted by: mjrc | April 26, 2009 at 04:32 PM
Hi Tim, that is lovely :)). I think there is something so special about seeing the little ones in something made by hand just for them. Does Mrs Young blog or post pictures of her work anywhere?
Thank you very much, Marcy. I've been wanting to learn crochet because I would love to make something like this. In fact I recently bought a book about it but I can't make heads or tails of it :)!
Posted by: Greer | April 26, 2009 at 06:27 PM
hmm, don't know why the hyperlink didn't work but anyway this is the blanket: http://tinyurl.com/djoom5
Posted by: Greer | April 26, 2009 at 06:30 PM
I tried knitting a few years ago, but I didn't really connect with it. However, I do like to have something to do with my hands while listening to music. Usually, I cuddle with and pet my cat ;)
Posted by: Melissa Donovan | April 30, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Hi Meilissa, the cat is probably much better company!
Posted by: Greer | May 03, 2009 at 05:59 AM
I can crochet a few cliches and turn them into blog postings....
Posted by: jc | May 04, 2009 at 02:43 AM
JC: I have to disagree with you there, we all know your blog postings are much more than that!!
Posted by: Greer | May 05, 2009 at 09:49 AM
OK, promise not to tell anyone... but i'm addicted to knitting too, shhhh! It's a sickness sometimes, I think. Thankfully we like to wear handmade socks and it's cold here for most of the year so that quells my urges, ... mostly. :)
and yes, the listening is very important. I can't just sit there. How do other people just listen to music?
xoxo,
Tart
Posted by: Tart | May 05, 2009 at 10:50 PM
Tart, If a rock n' roll vixen like you can also be a knitter then I am going to stop feeling so dowdy about it :)))!
I confess that I've never tried to make socks... don't you need ten needles or something? It seems very intimidating.
Posted by: Greer | May 06, 2009 at 11:52 AM