A Stitch In Timeless

Today as Lego and I walked the short distance between my house and the Lunenburg Academy, I met a man visiting from Ireland.  Determined to learn a bit about life in Lunenburg, he proceeded to ask me as many questions as can fit into a couple of town blocks.  Happy to oblige him, I did my best to answer.  Most of the questions were pretty standard, but then he surprised me.

“When you moved to Lunenburg” he asked, ” What stood out as being different than anywhere else you had ever lived?”

My mouth seemed to know the answer before my brain could do any sort of editing. “Slow,” I blurted.
“Everything is slower here.  It takes a little bit of getting used to, but once you do, you can’t go back.”

In this little exchange it dawned on me that I have been pursuing ‘slow” my whole life. I have always been drawn to tedium.  I even once painted a bathroom with a child’s paint brush.  I walk slowly.  I eat slowly.  I think slowly.  But now that I have discovered knitting I have truly arrived at the centre of the slow universe. Knitting redefines slow.  In fact, it stands outside of time in a different dimension.  Knitting is timeless.

I am finding that as soon as I pick up the knitting needles, I am calm.  I get lulled into the rhythm of the stitches and before I know it the day is done. What should feel like a daunting project, instead feels like floating in the middle of a lake.  One stitch a time (for weeks on end) and I am rewarded with a sweater or a shawl or whatever has been keeping me company on the needles.

I have been asked a few times if I will be selling knit wear to go with my hats.  I can understand this question, particularly since I don’t talk about anything else, but for now the answer has to be, no.  How does one charge for timeless?  Does $1000 seem a bit much for a pair of socks? Because that would be the real cost of this pair.

 I simply cannot measure my stitches in dollars.  They can only be measured in love. 

Here are some photos of my current shawl in progress.  It’s called the Suiren Shawl and can be found on Ravelry and can also be found in Amirisu, which is available at Mariner’s Daughter in Lunenburg.