Note: the first draft of this was written
about a week after the US election, the second draft a few days later. I liked
the second draft, but it wasn’t properly saved before my computer crashed. I
tried writing a third draft a day or two later but it was too painful, and then
I came down with a nasty sore throat. So, here’s the third/fourth draft…
I don't like knitting with lace weight yarn. I like knitting and I
like knitting lace, but preferably with at least sock weight yarn, preferably
bulky yarn on big needles. The last (and first) time I tried knitting with lace
weight yarn I was so frustrated by the amount of attention it required and that
the ply seemed to untwist with every stitch. I took the work off the needles,
rolled up the yarn and promptly hid it in my stash, deciding that I didn’t like
lace weight yarn but acknowledging that I was not ready to part with the lovely
yarn.
Fast forward a few years and I have been reunited with my stored
yarn stash and knitting patterns and quickly discovered that somehow I have not
one but four skeins of lace weight yarn. Oh dear… My preference really is for
socks or things with lots of stockinet or garter stitch – the sort of things
that are mindless and can be done while watching movies or the news.
And then the recent US election happened, and suddenly mindless
knitting was just not cutting it. It provided no relaxation, no joy. Not even
the challenge of creating a koala motif using yarn overs and knit-two-togethers
for a vest for Jimmy was enough. I needed a distraction; I needed something to
focus on that was not bad news or job hunting. I needed to make something.
Once we left the US, I almost stopped following the US election,
until about a week out from the big day. Even though it seemed like Clinton had
it in the bag (thank you algorithms), 44.4% of eligible US citizens did not vote. I’m not sure what upsets
me more: that the US president it not elected through the popular vote or that
nearly half the population did not vote in one of the most important and
historically significant elections in their history.
Sometimes I am sick to my stomach and sometimes I am hopeful.
Trump may actually improve employment and manufacturing in the US. Yet, deep
down, I am glad we are no longer there, and my heart goes out to all my friends
there, especially those who are foreign nationals. My relief is mixed with
guilt and I hope they are alright.
With my stomach in knots, I turned to my stash and knitting patterns
for something. I wasn’t sure what, but nothing easy. Nothing straight forward,
but also something small enough that I would see results and receive some sort
of satisfaction before the middle of next year. A lace pattern kept calling me.
I wanted to use the lovely lace weight yarn for a shawl, but the one I had had
in mind required 400+ stitches to be cast on (and I couldn’t find the beads I’d
bought for it). A simpler shawl or at least something with few stitches to cast
on was needed.
And it was there, in a different magazine – the one that I had
tried to knit all those years ago, but had decided that the yarn was not right
for the pattern. “Cast on 17 stitches” was almost enough to have me hooked, but
I still needed to think about it. Would my yarn produce the same kind of fuzzy,
lofty and light shawl? Was the colour mine or someone else’s? A few days later
I cast on those 17 stitches and haven’t looked back since.
But I kept looking back at the US election, and kept reading
articles about why Clinton lost or did not inspire or that the establishment
was the problem and Trump will change that, because he’s (apparently) anti establishment.
In some ways though, whoever was chosen as the Democrats nominee would have been
highly unlikely to win this election. Why? Because for the last 8 years the US president
came from the Democrats and like a yarn over following a knit-two-together,
Republican follows Democrat. Not always, but the pattern is there and it would have
taken a Democrat candidate even more extraordinary then Clinton to keep a
Democrat in the White House.
How the Trump years shape up? Only time will tell. Like blocking
lace work (soaking, stretching out, pinning in place, and allowing it to dry
before removing the pins), the work has been done but the result (how good or
bad) will only be known after the work has been soaked, pinned and dried. One
hopes it will turn out alright.
Unlike life (or a Trump presidency), knitting can be undone and
reworked. A dropped stitch can be picked up easily - a person who falls through
the cracks is harder to pick up. And it is easier to forgive the wonky
stitching of an early piece of lace work because it all takes time and practice.
Usually a presidential candidate has cut their teeth working their way through
various political pathways, i.e. independent senator or Secretary of State. A
brash businessman with no experience in the political realm? Hopefully he has
as a good (or better) team than Regan.
It’s hard to frog lace (frog: undo at least one row to correct an
error) and it’s hard to wind back legislation one it has passed – although at
least one Australian government has done so in recent years. It’s hard to know
if the result will be as one hoped – only history or blocking will reveal
whether or not it was worth it.
So much of this election had made me upset and angry and sick to
my stomach, yet I am more determined than ever to be the change I seek in this
world. Knitting lace with lace weight yarn has helped keep my calm, helped
focus my mind and cleared my head when anxiety (job hunting and US election
related) might have consumed me.
The therapeutic nature of knitting is well documented, but, for
me, the therapeutic nature of knitting lace with lace weight yarn has surprised
me: given that I nearly threw the yarn across the room in frustration last time
I tried it. Now, all I want to do is knit this shawl. It’s coming along nicely
and, as mentioned, it is the opposite of frustrating. I have less than half of
it to go, and the ball of alpaca and silk seems to still be the same size as
when I started – it’s not, I had to weigh it to make sure that it wasn’t a
magic ball of yarn, somehow related to Norman Lindsay's Magic Pudding.
I am hopeful that it will be a nice shawl and that I, or whoever
receives it, will like it. I am trying to be equally hopeful that Trump makes
an alright president.
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