I finally started knitting. Meri and Tokuko have been encouraging me to give it a try for a while, but for some reason I just couldn’t picture myself doing it. But with the pandemic and all the changes it has brought, I decided to give it a go. My only experience with knitting was making a garter stitch scarf when I was 10, but I decided that if I was going to knit something, I wanted a challenge. The scarf that Tokuko suggested for me was beautiful, I couldn’t believe that I could make something so complicated. As I got started, I was surprised to discover that the symbols in the pattern charts were not an indecipherable code, but instead were clear, logical instructions. And the beautiful stitch patterns that seemed impossibly complex? Nothing more than clever combinations of simple knit and purl stitches. The pattern said the final length would be 196 cm, over 6 ft. I felt like I needed to catch my breath after just 15 cm, so imagining the final size of the scarf was as overwhelming as standing at the bottom of a large mountain and looking up. But I kept at it, one stitch at a time. When I was in school, I ran track and was on the swim team. More recently, I’ve picked up hiking. As I made progress on my scarf, it occurred to me that these activities are all similar in a way. Even if a goal seems impossibly far away, the only way to get there is with one step at a time. Rather than trembling just at the thought of the final goal, if I focus on the stitches on my needles and try to enjoy the journey, eventually I’ll get there. I kept knitting, and in time, my scarf was finished. I felt a little sad to be done. This too reminded me of the activities I mentioned above. Sometimes people ask me, why put in so much time and effort? For me there is a unique, unforgettable thrill that comes along with these experiences. With how much life has changed during the past year, the lesson I learned from knitting was etched in my mind. Even if something seems too grand and unreachable at first, it is enough to take it one step, one task at a time. I realized that this can be true not only for sports or knitting, but for many other things, too. As a newcomer to knitting, I’m completely hooked. The sweater I’m working on now will be done soon and I’ve already picked out yarn for my next project. I hope I can stick with it. I’ve opened the door to a brand-new world, and it is so much fun!
– Masako Nakagawa