The Gift of Knitting
I’ve been planning to write this post for a long time. It was really important for me, but I couldn't put it in words. Well, yesterday, it started on its own.
When I decided to start this blog, it was important for me to give it a name that would reflect something more than "a knitting and crochet blog". Today I would love to tell you a story behind this name and hopefully inspire you in some way.My knitting story started when I was sad, more than sad... Disappointed, in poor health and lost. To cut a long story short... I graduated from the university with honors, but had no idea if teaching was actually what I wanted to do in my life. This same month after graduation I was diagnosed with chronic kidneys inflammation that required regular courses of antibiotics. I was always active, teaching pilates classes in the local fitness studio, running, walking, but after finding out about my kidney problem, I broke. Completely. So here I was, no idea what to do with my life, fighting kidney inflammations and looking at a grey winter sky covered in smoke from the industrial plants scattered all around the town. I was sad. Feeling useless. For months and months.Five or six months passed. Once I woke up and remembered something. I could crochet. My Grandma taught me when I was 9 years old. I stopped when I was 12 and never came back to it. I called my Granny and said "Granny, I want to start crochet again". I heard a sigh of relief. "Of course! Let's go to a yarn store". And there I was, in my first yarn store, which was a tiny little space with a couple of shelves of cheap acrylic yarn. But suddenly I felt home. It was weird, completely inexplicable. But I felt happy, again. We bought some yarn, a crochet hook. And since then I don't remember a single week without a ball of yarn on my lap. It felt so real, so simple. I became a maker.After getting back to crochet, I wanted to learn knitting. I bought a knitting magazine and... didn't understand a single thing. What language is that?! I started looking in the internet - in Russian, in English, found Lion Brand and began learning. Tried different patterns that turned into disaster. But one thought was pulsing in my head - it doesn't matter, I will learn. And I did. And this simple, seemingly insignificant thing gave me so much confidence. If I can teach myself how to read this pattern language and make a garment using a thread and two sticks, I can definitely figure out what to do with my life and health! It was a hard time, but it was my time of growing up and becoming a better person. I will always be grateful for it. Since then the thread of yarn is running through my life in the most unexpected ways.Me and my boyfriend, now husband, decided to make a bold move and do something I have been dreaming about since I was a little girl - leave our industrial hometown. We started to look for different opportunities. We chose Mexico. Just like that. We didn't speak Spanish, we didn't know a country, we knew nobody there, all our things fitted in one suitcase. But it didn't matter. I had my yarn, needles and a crochet hook. If I can learn knitting, I can learn Spanish!My health significantly improved in Mexico. The climate and ecology are so much better for my kidneys. But most importantly I believed in my body. If I could learn knitting, I can recover my health. I came back to teaching pilates, which made me incredibly happy.When a season starts, we have a beautiful organic market in a park, where you can come, walk, buy vegetables, listen to music. I loved to spend Saturdays there - sit, knit, crochet, support local farmers, meet new people. One day a woman complemented my knitting and we started to talk. She happened to be a Montessori teacher from the local Montessori school and they were looking for bilingual teachers! I had my degree in traditional system. But I had something in my mind - if I could learn knitting, I could learn Montessori. I got my interview and a couple of months later I got my new job. And that's what I was looking for. The puzzle came together. I fell in love with the Montessori system. And of course, my students know how to knit and crochet now!What wonderful gifts I got from knitting and crochet! The confidence that I can learn anything, that I can make and do things. My constant support through hard times. If not for knitting, it would be so hard to stay calm during post-hurricane weeks. And of course, the gift of meeting so many wonderful people in this incredibly kind and warm knitting community. Thank you for visiting and caring! You always make my day!Here is one of my favorite posts from Rebecca about feeling small: “Actions that change and transform can start very humbly and there is probably nothing more humble than home crafts like stitching and mending.” If you ever feel small, read Rebecca's post, take your project and feel big again. Because you are. No matter what is going on in your life.I don't know what life is holding for me, but I am not scared and lost anymore. No matter what happens, I can always take a moment to knit and figure it out.
Thank you!
