I can say with certainty that pandemic knitting is not for the faint-hearted. It all started with an email from my local yarn shop with alluring pictures of new projects. I was seduced. I called up the shop and arranged to pick up the new project. And I have a confession: I am by no means a talented knitter; I am merely persistent.
My friend is a whiz at knitting; she can do cables in her sleep, knit two together through the back loops and most amazingly, she can find and fix mistakes: two things that currently elude me. And usually, if I have a kerfuffle, I go over to her house and in no time she has my knitting repaired and ready to go again.
But now, she is in the wilds of Peoria. I had a kerfuffle this afternoon, a nasty one. I painstakingly unknit three rows of my shawl, but it was still not right and I was not recognizing the mistake. Telephoning Peoria, I explained my predicament. Becca requested I text her sequential pictures of the entire row of the knitting, and of course, she found it: I had two twisted stitches. Once I turned them around, my problem was fixed.
By this time I was sweating. Who said knitting’s not aerobic?
I’m Rosie Klepper and that’s my perspective.
Rosie Klepper is a writer and editor. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, Iowa City Magazine, University of Iowa’s Alumni Magazine and the Chicago Tribune. She is an active member of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra, and she relishes the opportunity to play her violin in the mighty second violin section. She has a B.A. in music and French with a minor in English from Elmhurst College and also holds a M.A. in French literature from the University of Iowa.
