Knitting season in India usually begins in September usually just after Dassera when the weather begins to turn cool in the Northern parts of the country. So you will wonder why talk about it now - the very thought of knitting makes us feel hotter! Well for one thing the thought of knitting reminds me of the cold weather and that helps me to tide over the summer knowing that cooler months will come once again and also because the very word "knitting" makes me visualize the lovely colors of the wool and the soothing skill of knitting.
I have always been an avid knitter having learnt it from my mother (who was a knitting enthusiast right up to her grave and more important who knitted even in summer) as a preschooler. My first stitches were on a pair of smoothened sticks from the coconut broom. I graduated to knitting with four needles, circular needles et al over five decades and still continue to knit though the local weather does not really warrant woolens even in December.
When I was in high school the character of Madame Defarge, knitting the names of her victims fascinated me in the "Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. Till then I had not even thought that knitting could be used for any purpose other than making warm clothing to protect one from the winter. When I entered college as a fresher I met this smiley pleasant nun Mother Aloysia who also was very busy with knitting - her hands were never still and she perpetually knitted dainty baby sets in lovely pastel colors. Then I realized that here was another lady who used knitting for a different purpose - she knitted "Hail Marys" into her knitting in order to bless the child who would wear it with health and longevity. These two characters influenced me to view knitting from a different perspective ( I began to incorporate my affection into the pieces I knitted.
I did not think about knitting too deeply in the intervening period though I continued to knit and tried to make the girls and women in my circle take up this art or skill. I recently came across this lovely book "Zen and the Art of Knitting" by Bernadette Murphy (Publisher - Adams Media Corporation) which made me realize that knitting is not just a frugal craft but something much more than that. I realized that people knit for several reasons - from bonding with their earlier generation or future generation to the spiritual and meditative aspects.
What attracted me most was Rudolf Steiner's (1861-1925)philosophy on knitting.He postulated that knitting as also other handicrafts are integral to the educational process of children. He instituted the Waldorf system of Schooling. According to this program the first graders learn to knit prior to learning to write or learn numbers as a method of developing fine motor sills and numerical understanding necessary for the acquisition of the three Rs. Recent researches in Neurology confirms that mobility and dexterity of fine motor skills especially of the hands stimulates cellular development in the brain thus strengthening one's ability to think and make intellectual connections. Rudolf Steiner has rightly said "Thinking is cosmic knitting".
So what are you waiting for? Take a pair of needles and start knitting. If you do not know how to knit find someone to teach you and experiment with it until you begin to enjoy the benefits of knitting as a method of enhancing your intellect while reducing your stress!
