It was my second Saturday that I sat with the small group of knitters.  Once my good friend learned that my passionate interest in knitting was going to “stick” she invited me to be a part of this long-standing group that sits! and knits.  More than knitting, they share solutions with each other than have specifically to do with knitting and in general have to do with life.  In fact, Bonnie, my friend who recently taught me the basics of knitting said she found metaphor for just about every problem in life in the process of knitting. (That’s a story for another day!)

We were each working on our projects and engaged in vibrant and easy conversation when a stranger approached the table announcing, “You women are driving me crazy with your knitting.  I can’t knit.  I haven’t a creative bone in my body.”

My friend cast a sympathetic look toward me.  She knows “them’s fighting words” to me who helps people discover their innate creative at many different levels.  I held my tongue and kept moving my needles while I listened to a series – a very creative series, I might add, of sentences using
“can’t” in more incarnations than I have room to list here.  Trust me – there was a world of can’t contained in her paragraph of problems as it relates to knitting, specifically, and fiber arts in general.  She had some harsh words for crocheting, as well.

The most seasoned knitter at the table took the bait.  She explained there were four essential steps to successful knitting. 1-2-3-4.  There it was.  My friend offered her a cup of can without the “T.” What I quickly heard was this stranger was more attached to the story of Can’t than in learning how she could honestly say,”Hey!  I can knit.”  Unable to resist, halfway through I turned to her in the midst of her “cant-ing” and said, “I learned to cast on, knit, purl and cast off just last month.”

I think how she dismissed my newly acquired knowledge with something that would be spelled like, “Phfyughfft.”  Pretty close.

I turned to the non-tutoring knitter on my left and quietly said that there were an awful lot of “can’t’s” flying around our table.   She assured me not to worry.  That we at the knitting table did indeed prefer our cups of CAN with the “T.”

Do you?

Enjoy these uplifting quotes:

courage doesn’t always roar.  sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “i will try again tomorrow.”  mary anne radmacher

In science, one can learn the most by studying what seems to be the least.  Marvin Minsky

What you risk reveals what you value.  Jeanette Winterson

I keep six honest serving-men/ (They taught me all I knew); / Their names are What and Why and When,/ And How and Where and Who.   – Rudyard Kipling –

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.  – James Thurber –

A key to a vital life is an eagerness to learn and a willingness to change.  – mary anne radmacher –