My Knitting

I always loved to play kanche, gilli danda, pitthoo.  Paak kala or other arts which girls are generally supposed to learn were not really my cup of tea. When I was in college, my friend Sarika, so proficient in cross stitch was adamant to teach me how to embroider. May be she thought that it would enhance my shadi ke prospects. Morally bound to do a friend’s bidding, I made two embroideries-one consisting two angels and another castle. It felt like an achiever proud of doing something deemed impossible!

During my stint as a lecturer in FCC my friend insisted that I must knit (actually knit, bhai) and I chose double knit yarn as it involved thick needles. I did knit a sweater for myself. The border was done by my friend (using thin knitting needles was quite a nightmare for me!). I do not know whether any one ever came to know that on finishing the knitting,  I ironed the sweater fondly and lo! It became so misshapen! It was catastrophic! For quite some time I kept gazing at the deformed baby of my labor of love. It was depressing indeed. After that I gave up the chase to be ‘samajhdaar’ woman and never tried to prove my mettle in this arena.

But I confess I love knitting - it’s easy, less complex, more comforting, cozy and provides such a nigh. They all,  who have witnessed over three and half decades of my good old fifty years would agree (I am uncomfortable at the very thought of all of them getting together!) that I have loved to knit words and expressions. It has been my endeavor not to create knots but more often than not I end up with so many of them that a life time seems insufficient to un-knot and resolve; that sometimes I would  use patterns, too with lexis-presentable, attractive, soft and intense; that I would know where my designs were going beyond the hedge and yet nothing would stop me; that the yarn would look soft when afresh but like a brat I would not take much time to spoil the broth, spill it on the lovingly knit sambndh; that I have been (sort of) an expert weaver unmindful of being watched what was being woven at dawn, noon and dusk. For sure I do not know one thing that the patterns get noticed by the people very soon and that it is their fitrat to forget, its their simplicity that they forget, its not theirs to ‘learn to remember’ or else all my designs would get known and then they would not be fooled anymore.

But then I have not learnt knitting either. It is something which comes naturally to me. I do not know how to create designs, shapes. Nor have I ever wanted to impress any one with forms, colors of what is spontaneously knit by me. Besides, I know it is easier to get into a complex design but very difficult to manage that. The situation gets messy like packing before a take off with heaps scattered in front of you.

           

I have not been a deft weaver and dread being shown the knots (gaanth) in my knitting; have often left loose tand here and there callously unmindful of how thin threads can get entangled to the extent that cutting them apart is the lone solution as I possess absolutely no ability to untangle the tiny loops. They may make a beautiful design in crochet but when it comes to prem ka dhaga,  Rahimji has the last say.