For us knitters, we have all come to it from different places. For some it was taught to us by our grandmothers and mothers, our trusted friends and our patient neighbors. For others it was picked up from a sense of wonder at an image or a person we knew who knit. Maybe we threw down our knitting as a child, only to pick it up later and never set it down again. For all of us, there is a certain peace that comes when the yarn is flowing through our fingers and the needles are clicking away. We find our breath slows, our heartbeat falls into a deeper rhythm, and our focus shifts from the bustling world around us to the project at hand.
I am about to teach my first Knitting Meditation workshop this October. I am scared and also excited to share this side of my yoga practice. Over the years, I have fielded so many questions about knitting that I feel it only fair to share this wonderful art with others. I can only hope that this knitting meditation translates into my workshop. I’m scared that it won’t be relaxing, that people won’t “get” it and that no one will ever ask me about my knitting again. (Melodramatic I know)
For some reason, there is a bond that forms between knitters. I can’t tell you the many times I have struck up a conversation or bonded with a total stranger over our knitting. Maybe they have the needles and I butt in, or they have been so intriqued by what I am knitting that they say something. An innocent question… “What are you knitting?”… and the friendship has begun. I really hope that I can give this moment to others. There is something so special in that moment, that experience. Maybe it is the peace that we find while creating something that speaks to that same part in all knitters. Maybe we just know the satisfaction and relaxation that knitting creates. Whatever it is… I hope that I am able to share this with others and that they get that “ah-ha” moment one day while the yarn is flowing through their fingers and something very special is taking shape in their hands.
8-3-1 yoga 