Are You Knitting Cheerfully?

What do you feel when you’re knitting?

Are you relaxed, enjoying the rhythm of your motions, the feel of the yarn in your hands, the soft noise made by your needles?

Or do you feel stressed or even anxious?

Although I mostly knit cheerfully, I do know those negative feelings. For example, I often worry about running out of yarn before the project is finished. Or I desperately want to meet a certain (usually self-imposed) deadline. Or I’m annoyed that I can’t seem to master a new technique.

These feelings can take the joy out of knitting, and I don’t want that. I want my knitting to be fun.

So this is what I tell myself when I’m starting to feel stressed by my knitting:

What will really happen if I don’t succeed with this project?

And the reality is: Nothing much.

Yeah, it would have been nice to make a long-sleeved sweater, but I don’t have enough yarn so it will be a short-sleeved tee or a vest instead.

Yeah, it would have been nice to wear that knitted item at that big event, but I have other clothes I can wear instead.

Yeah, it would have been nice to master this technique now, but sometimes I’m just not in the right frame of mind for learning new things. It will go better at a later point.

So, let’s take a deep breath.
It’s not the end of the world if a knitting project goes wrong. Unravel it, or put it aside, and start with something new that is fun to make. Knitting is our hobby, it should be enjoyable. Let’s knit cheerfully!