Knitting take Balls....of Yarn and Determination!

Has there ever been a technique in knitting that you have wanted to try, but then you look at it and say "I just don't understand the combination of words that are there that make that happen" ?

Contrary to popular opinion, I do have this thought. It was how I always looked at Brioche knitting. I would look at the pattern and the finished product and my brain would act like I just put Mentos in Diet Coke. I just didn't get it. So I did what anyone would do, I just pretended like it didn't exist. If it wasn't there, then I don't need to know about it, right?

Well, earlier this year I sat in on a seminar Lavanya Patricella gave at Knitting Live! in NYC. The majority of her work is in the brioche stitch. I was inspired but still completely lost when navigating the waters. So I purchased her book on all things brioche. I tried to read it and I still, just didn't get it.

At this point, I thought, "ok, this just isn't for me." I felt like it was just the quantum physics of knitting. E = MC2 but with string and pointy sticks. I was ok with this idea that this technique just wasn't for me. I had accepted it. I put her book on the shelf and said, "Maybe one day" and walked away.

Well, it wasn't very long after the book had been put away that I was inspired once again to learn brioche. But this time, I was DETERMINED. I had a rare Friday night free and was alone at home. (Where my family was, I dont remember. But who cares, I was home alone! What a rare treat!). So I grabbed some scrap yarn, a pair of needles and my iPad and sat on the couch with the same determination as a puppy begging for food.

I found a video on YouTube and I must have watched that video 700 times that night. It slowly (oh so slowly) started to make sense. I had to go slow and read, reread, and reread again the pattern I selected. It took me probably a little over 2 hours to get an inch or two completed. But I was starting to get it.

That evening was 2 months ago and I am closing in on finishing a beautiful brioche shawl. I no longer ned the pattern. I have memorized the stitches and the mechanics of it make sense in my brain. I look back to the Maria who was baffled in the winter and think, "what was her problem? this is easy!"

Knitting, like anything else, is skill that takes time to master. There are very, very few people who can pick up needles for the first time ever and make something astonishingly beautiful. These skills take time, patience and practice to master. All you need is the resolve to learn it.

I know that I often say how more difficult techniques are easy. I say that because I want you, as my student, to know that you WILL get it. It WILL be easy for you. Maybe not right now, but you will see, in time, that this technique is EASY. I also want you to know that you are not alone. I too have those same feelings about things in knitting. Brioche seemed so unattainable for me and yet, here we are, so many stitches later, with an almost finished shawl.

So keep your chin up buttercup. You WILL get it. You WILL see how all the stitches fit together and make that pattern you have been pining over. And if you need help, support, or just someone to vent to with curse words, you know where to find me.