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December 07, 2006
Knitting Together a Story
I've just taken up knitting again. I'm using "again" loosely -- when I was in high school, I bought several skeins of hot pink and citrusy orange yarn to make a sweater I saw in Seventeen magazine. I started the sweater, that I know. But I also know I never finished it.
Our son lives in New York and has chronic colds. What could show a mother's love better than a handknit muffler? I bought a ball of cream and a ball of rust in the cushiest yarn I could find. I fell for one of the scarves on display at the yarn store. All I had to do was cast on 30 stitches and knit 2, purl 2 and I would be able to give my son the equivalent of a daily dose of chicken soup. The project went with me to New York for Thanksgiving. And I was going to town on it. Until the night I sat alone in the hotel room while my boys engaged in male bonding over hockey at Madison Square Garden.
A couple of rows after I changed colors, I realized I was in big trouble. Now I had 31 stitches and the pattern had melded into something that looked like undercooked oatmeal. Impulsively, I tore out the offending rows. . .and realized I couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Now, I had too much time into this project to let it go the way of the pink and orange sweater. So upon my return home, I got myself to the nearest yarn store where I was taught to "tink."
That's "knit" backwards, in case you were wondering. The patient woman at Village Yarn and Tea showed me how to undo my mess and get back to where I'd made the mistake. (I also learned that my interpretation of knit 2, purl 2 had resulted not in the pattern's called-for ribstitch, but in my own creation, now called the mistake stitch. But I like it anyway).
As I tinked away, I was struck by how this textile lesson could also apply to writing. Sometimes we write ourselves into one heck of a mess. And the easy answer is to pitch the whole ugly thing and start over. Okay, let's be completely honest. I'm not talking in generalities here, but in specifics. I had just written myself into one heck of a mess with the middle grade historical novel and was ready to pitch the whole thing and start afresh.
But then I learned to tink. And I took that lesson from the needles and applied it to the page. I am slowly unknitting the story I created, working back to the time where I was excited about the premise, where it was fresh and new. It's farther back than I had to go with my son's scarf, but unlooping the plot let me see the heart of the story. I'd gotten too caught up in trying out fancy stitches. I needed to get back to what I do best: knitting together a character I care about with a problem he (in this case) needs to solve for himself.
Tinking with this text helped me find the story's pattern again. So maybe it isn't just like the model on display; but it's my creation. It warms me, as my son's muffler will warm him. . .as soon as I get it finished.
Posted by kirby at December 7, 2006 05:56 PM
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Comments
Very nice to meet you! A package arrived here from Amazon just yesterday and included the copy of Hattie Big Sky that I asked my husband to find for me. I've had to force myself to put it down so that I can study for finals--which doesn't explain why I'm dinking around on the computer at this moment rather than hitting the books, but, well...you know. At least I'm not knitting!
Posted by: kristy at December 10, 2006 10:33 AM