I love knitting. I love the process of working some soft and beautiful yarns into warm kits and garments. To me, nothing is more soothing than knitting over a cup of tea during those long cold winter nights.
I have been knitting for over a decade now, but I am a slow knitter and still not very good at it. I often make mistakes. I wouldn’t even notice them until I am about to finish up the last few stitches. I want to go back to correct them, but It seems such a colossal waste of time to unravel most of my work. So, most of the time I would usually proceed finishing up the project, and then bemoan about all the slipups that I have made.
Once I was so caught up with how terrible the finished piece looked to me, I went to my knitting instructor for help.
It was a scarf for my partner’s birthday, and it has already been two months since that special day.
As I took out the scarf out of my bag, my instructor’s eyes beamed. “What a lovely scarf! I love the color combination!”
I went on telling her all the flaws that I have made during the process, and that’s when she stopped me.
“The person will NEVER notice. And really, those are just part of the design feature of your scarf.”
How often do we obsess with the minor details and we lose the right perspective? Our minds are so fixated with the notion of “being perfect”, we end up being the harshest critic to ourselves. We are bound to have shortcomings and make blunders from time to time, but that is what makes us human being.
It is time to practice self-acceptance. As paradoxical as it sounds, self acceptance is actually about recognizing the fact that “You are perfect the way you are. And you could use some work” (a quote from Japanese Zen Master Suzuki Roshi).
As for the scarf – my partner is thrilled about the scarf. He loves it because it is warm and snuggly and reminds him of me. He never notices anything off. Just like what my instructor said – it’s become part of the design feature.
And I know I will have some other design features in my next knitting project. And I will still love knitting just the same.