"Good God, you freak, it's just yarn. Yarn cannot kill you. That ball of purple isn't going to wrap itself around your throat. It cannot bite or pinch you. Hell, it doesn't have hands. It doesn't have teeth. Yarn can't even criticize this thing you are trying to knit. For the love of sanity, take a deep breath!"
This is the sales pitch I repeated to myself over and over Wednesday evening, while trying to use my circular knitting needles for the very first time, and it actually worked.
As you can see (or hear), anxiety rears its ugly little beak when I try something new. My knitting has been limited to straight knits and purls and frankly, I'm over scarves and washcloths. Time to move on and try
something new: A hat...using circular needles. Poseidon gifted me with a set last year for Christmas, so time to bust them out before Christmas this year.
I found a simple hat pattern on Ravlery (of course), dropped by the yarn store in my neighborhood for some yarn, and asked for a quick demonstration on knitting in the round. The knitting guru in the shop was more than happy to show me and she told me to stop by with my hat project if I needed any help.
After casting on, I was ready to start the first round, in the round, but I couldn't get it, cue the stress monster. I watched and re-watched a YouTube video on knitting in the round, but I found the videos less than helpful. I was searching my hands for hives because I fully expected to be breaking out in a stress rash. None. I repeated the opening sentence of this blog over and over until I decided I was safe. The yarn I bought wasn't cheap, but it wasn't going to eat me.
I switched to a cheap ball of yarn from my knitting bag and I took charge. I practiced until I got it, realizing I would not be dying at the hands of my yarn. Undoing and restarting 8 times isn't going to hurt anyone, EVER. Cheap yarn, it turns out, is quite submissive...and forgiving.
