Inspiration

I've been thinking. You know, about knitting. What is it that inspires you? What makes you want to get up in the morning and pick up your needles and knit?

Do you knit for therapy? Is it more of a communing with the women who have done this before? Why do you feel the need to knit?

I'm almost compulsive about it. I don't think that I could knit just one row and be happy. I need to knit at least four or five rows to feel like I have accomplished something. My mother doesn't knit. Neither of my grandmothers did. In fact, there hasn't been a knitter in my direct family line since my great grandmothers. And really, they weren't heavy into the knitting. One was a quilter, one was a sewer, and one liked embroidery and needle work. The fourth one? I don't know as much about her.

So what is it exactly that draws me to knitting? I used to read books constantly, now I substitute knitting. I know there must be some reason that I feel the pull of yarn and needles. The sweet feel of yarn slipping through my fingers, the gentle click of wooden needles, and that final satisfaction of a finished object. I love the sensual aspects of knitting. Smelling wool or silk, feeling buttery fleeces, and feasting on the vivid colors of dyed yarn, I feel sated in a way that isn't entirely physical.

I yearn after skeins and needles and patterns that I didn't even know existed before I came to college. I take pride in teaching other people this art. It just makes me happy.

What inspires me to knit? What causes me to get up every morning and sigh over my yarn and needles? Even after all of this thinking and pondering and wondering I still don't know.

What I'm curious about is, do you know what it is that causes you to crave knitting?