Monday, April 3, 2006

Dee's (Knitting) Anatomy


On Sunday night, after much blogging about me mentioning that I should try again to "be one with the knit," to give it another yarn over (so to speak), I picked up a pair of knitting needles and tried again.

Going on memory, which I think should never happen on a "daylight savings" day, I opted to cast on a simple number of loops.  Do knitters call them loops or stitches?  I'm going to call them loops as that's what they look like to me should I have been doing the crochet Tunisian technique.  In thinking back, I should have grabbed one of my knitting books for reference.

Instead I opted to go it alone, and select an easy number of loops to start.  Fifteen; I can handle fifteen just to fiddle around in becoming "one" with the knitting needles, right?  As I cast on my loops, the television program Grey's Anatomy comes on.  The episode, called
The Name of the Game, is about the main character, Meredith, giving up on men and using her knitting as a substitute.  Her plan?  She's going to knit a sweater.  I think she was doomed though as throughout the entire program there were constant remarks made by the other characters saying she can't knit.

I'm sitting there on my couch, watching the program a bit while trying to get those negative thoughts of "Dee can't knit" out of my mind.  As I stick the point of my needles into various loops, I twist the yarn around this way and that --praying kinda -- that I can pick up another loop without dropping it.  Many times I found myself stopped, intently watching Meredith throwing the yarn over her needles.  I found myself wondering, "Why does she throw her yarn over like that? 
Is that the way I should have been doing it too?"

Meanwhile, in another scene on the show, they show Meredith's knit work growing.  And then in another scene there's another character knitting too, Izzie, as part of Meredith's support system.  I'm gathering that the entire show takes place within a single day -- so I was quite surprised when Izzie was able to present a patient with an entirely knitted sweater.  Come on!  I think we all know that knitting is way slower than crocheting!  After all, within the hour of watching the program I only had four rows done of fifteen loops/stitches, and just where did that scallop edging come from?  That wasn't in the plan!  Talking about a crushing feeling!

Let's face it, this was not a "learn to knit" program, but fortunately not all was lost.  In the last scene they show Meredith madly knitting away ... her sweater looked like it was scarf that would eventually fit King Kong.  Whew!  So maybe it's not just me being slow to pick up on knitting.  I tugged out my work.  I think I'll try again sometime in the future; maybe my luck/skill will improve.  Then again, maybe Meredith should try crocheting.

BTW: If you can't get enough of the televison show, then you'll be happy to know they have two blogs that focus on characters from the program: 
Emerald City Bar and The Nurse's Station  Please note both links I'm providing here go directly to their entries about this knitting episode.  And I happen to like one line from Joe, the Bartender:  "I mean, seriously – knitting?  Meredith is my girl and all, but she was totally freaking the other customers out with the whole knitting thing.  Man, I’m telling you, people just aren’t used to seeing something like that..."  I wonder what he'd say should she have been crocheting ...  

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dee I am not a great knitter but do know the basic. If you would like we could have coffee one day and I could help you get started. I have been getting some knitting kits at Target. I may not knit them but yarn is yarn and they had some reduced. Just let me know. Ruth

Anonymous said...

I feel your pain and am doing the same thing.  It would be nice to be bilingual though.  Let's keep trying.  Feel better......  Lori

Anonymous said...

I'm teaching myself to knit.  It's not as hard as everyone thinks.  Go to www.knittinghelp.com  They have videos.  Also if you need further help, you can purchase the CD How To Knit.  It's very well done.  And it's called stitches.  lol  I've already designed and knitted my own cell phone case which I'm very proud of.  Can't even tell it was done by a newbie.  I guess I get it from being a perfectionist crocheter.  Don't give up!!  Keep trying!
HAGD! Michelle
ps.. People who knit are faster than one would think.  They even do it without looking...*gasp!