Before bedtime, I sat with my mother watching TV and finished my first-ever knitted scarf. Last year a friend and I took knitting lesson.I love the wool and the colors and the aspiration of a final product. But I was humbled by the task. Learning to knit is a great metaphor for learning anything.

I am not a natural when it comes to knitting. As I watched my friend deftly move her needles, follow the instructions, and understand the new language of this new skill – I realized I could not understand the directions, feel the movement, or remember the steps.    

 Lesson One
• Comparison with others undermines commitment and confidence.

I was determined to learn and so I spent several evenings trying to do the simplest of actions. I found coaching from YouTube videos and rediscovered these. 

Lesson Two
• Nothing replaces practice
• Technology is my friend
• Find a coach

We all learn differently and I was slow to find the rhythm of the needles and fingers. Late one night I felt the right cadence and the feedback from my rows was good. The knits were even and without error. I was rewarded and this was my gift.

 Lesson Three
• Hard work and persistence always pay off
• Accept the feedback

During my learning period, my mother became very ill. As I prepared to race to her bedside in Pennsylvania, I packed my knitting and brought yarn and needles enough for my nieces. When I learn something, my instinct is always to teach it to another. My learning style is to learn through doing and I know that teaching someone else always helps me to improve my learning. Though I am far from knitting mastery,  I could help my nieces learn the fun of knitting. It came in handy as we sat together, by my mother’s bedside for days while she was close to dying.

At times, she opened her eyes and smiled to see the needles in my hands (she and my grandmother had been great knitters) and her fingers held my wool. At one point she looked at my beginner’s scarf and said the only words she had spoken in days, ‘Rip, Rip, Rip.’ My scarf was filled with mistakes and she wanted me to start again! So many lessons in this circle of knitters sitting beside her. But the lesson from my mother stuck.

Lesson Four
• Don’t be afraid to start again
• Keep starting over until you get it right

Last night, one year later, I sat with my mother who is still on her journey. I used YouTube to learn the new skill of casting off to complete my first scarf. I have started other scarfs (still unfinished) but this first one, which is knitted too tightly and is unique in its imperfection, is finished.  

I have learned how to relax into my knitting. My subsequent projects are less tight and contained. I love the peacefulness of the knitting habit and will carry it with me. My mother can still knit and together we sit quietly in each other’s company and pass the days of winter and wait for spring.

Life is full of lessons. And while learning a fun new hobby, I have learned a bucket full.     

 Knit one, purl two.  

Leslie

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Here Are A Few Questions About Lessons
• What have you learned to do recently?
• What have you rediscovered?