Knitting Mindfully

Since it was my turn to anchor our meditation group last night, I got there early to set up and light the candle. I sat down with my knitting to await the arrival of other meditators.

But 7:30 came and went and no one walked through the door. Instead of starting the sit, I just kept knitting, promising myself to quit after each additional row about 10 times. I’m still so new to knitting that I can’t really think about anything else while I’m doing it so it is almost a form of meditation.

At 7:40 I put the knitting aside and began to sit, telling myself I’d go for 20 minutes. I invited the bell 3 times and closed my eyes. At precisely 8:00 I looked at my watch for the first time. It was a calm sit with virtually no distractions. After the concluding bell, I blew out the candle, turned off the lights, collected my knitting, and locked the door on my way out.

I’m now into my 3rd of three balls of yarn. The scarf is approaching 3 feet as you can see. I’m having lunch with an experienced knitter who can tell me what to do with the yarn ends that remain from where I’ve finished one skein and started the next. I’ll be curious to see whether the approach is to tie them in a knot or work them into the scarf with a crochet hook or maybe something else that I haven’t even thought of.

I’m afraid I’m becoming one of those annoying people who whip our their knitting any time they sit down. There is something very soothing and meditative about the repetitive motion of picking up a stitch with one needle, wrapping the yarn around it, and then transferring it to the other needle – over and over and over again.

It was really OK that no one showed up. I had a new sort of practice that was equally beneficial.