S - L - O - W Knitting

SLOW -- 25 stitch
per minute zone

I'm a big believer in slowing some things in life down. Like my knitting. I get clicking away so fast at times that I lose sight of the joy in knitting.

Lately I've been working on a really easy project. It's a shawl that I'm knitting for summer. I've messed up the stitch pattern at least three times. Easy as the sequence is, I knit backwards to the mistake and then, slowly, begin again.

I make myself slow down by stopping at the end of every row and checking the knitting. Sometimes I count the stitches to be sure that the numbers are correct. If I'm doing a lace pattern, I look for the yarn over holes and the decrease bars.

Getting up for a glass of water stretches my back and relaxes my hands. Just looking up from the needles and yarn and leaning back changes my focus and gives my eyes a break.

While it is great to finish a project (or a row or a sequence of rows) it's also good to get to that end with enough energy and enthusiasm to move to the next knitting moment.