Sorry I can’t talk right now; I’m doing hot girl sh*t – *me sat in my childhood bedroom knitting*

I don’t know about anyone else, but lockdown 3 has felt different to me, with the dark nights, constant rain, and the fact I’m trapped in my home town after just getting used to the general chaos of uni halls. With the January blues starting to kick in, I felt I needed some sort of purpose to my life instead of just wallowing in self-pity in my childhood bedroom for weeks. So, I channeled some of that lockdown 1 optimism and decided to take up knitting. It started off as a bit of a joke at first, the night lockdown 3 was announced despairingly stating, “I’m going to have to cut my hair and learn to knit”, both of which I have now done. But my original interest in knitting was actually spurred on by my new-found love of cardigans (which may or may not be down to Taylor Swift – if you know, you know).

So, I contacted my friend and asked if she had any knitting needles to get me started, it seemed like the sort of thing she would have lying around the house. And the next day she dropped them round along with a bag of wool. My Grandma was then somehow informed about my new hobby (Mum I’m looking at you), which kind of meant I had to stick to my word since she’d started researching beginner knitting videos on YouTube for me. So that night I began my endeavour into the mysterious world of slipknots, purling and dropped stitches.  

Before I could even start knitting, I had to learn to cast on, which was definitely not as scary or confusing as everyone makes out (I’ve heard so many times, “I can knit, but I can’t cast on or off”). I then got to work on learning the easiest stitch, closely following the video my Grandma had sent me. After quite a few holes in the first few rows due to a lot of dropped stitches, I seemed to get the hang of it.

Once I’d mastered that, I tried a few more techniques: the purl stitch and the ribbed stitch, both slightly more complicated than the first. I did have a bit of an existential crisis one night whilst I was sat with my parents knitting and listening to classical music, and I wasn’t even trying to be pretentious. But then I remembered we basically can’t leave the house and I felt a bit better about myself. 

Anyway, I do think learning to knit has added a tiny bit of purpose back into my life, despite the stigma around it being for grannies, a title I’m happy to take when house parties and Spoons nights are out of the question. It’s also surprisingly therapeutic – at least when it goes right. I think I’ll try adding different colours next so I can make something stripey. Hopefully soon I’ll have that Harry Styles patchwork cardigan I’ve been dreaming of, although it might be best to start off with a scarf.

Header image credit: Stitch & Story (https://www.stitchandstory.com/blogs/knitting-tips/2-ways-to-increase-stitches-in-knitting)