Everyone has one. That one skill they simply cannot master. For a long time, it was drawing for me. When I tell people I cannot make a straight line with a ruler, they think I am kidding. I’m not. Seriously, it’s ridiculous. I have friends whose casual doodles during a single business meeting would take me four years to recreate.
Eventually, I gave up my dreams of being able to create, on paper, the images in my head. At least, as an artist. I do a fair job with words, but often they still seem clunky and imprecise to me.
Currently, the skill that is frustrating me is knitting. I am a fiend for crochet. I can make most anything I set my mind to and have even written a couple of patterns of my own. Anything from a TARDIS notebook cover to a shawl of skulls, I’m confident enough in my crochet abilities to say “sure, I can do that.”
But knitting. Oy. I took a Craftsy class and it was great and I really felt like I knew what I was doing…but I hated every minute of it. Why? Because I had to concentrate so hard! I see these women knitting away on the subway and they don’t even seem to be looking at their work. How will they know if they drop a stitch? You basically can’t drop a stitch in crochet, and you’ll know within a row, two at most, if you’ve done something wrong.
But knitting. OMG. Seriously. One misstep and the whole blasted thing unravels! When I expressed my frustration over the number of times I tore this project out, even with step-by-step video instructions on Craftsy, my knitting friends said “oh, yes, that’s just part of the process.” It’s what?”
One of my 2014 goals was to learn to knit. As you can see, I did finish that project…eventually. And I am pretty sure I know how to knit and purl. But I will never be able to knit like those women on the subway. I will always be worried about dropping a stitch…because I almost certainly will drop stitches. Right now I am knitting one of those endless cowls because I found some gorgeous yarn in New Orleans and decided I wanted to use it, but it’s not well-suited to crochet. But I’ve learned my lesson. There are no fancy stitches in this thing, just knit, knit, knit. And still, I fear it will (k)not come out right.
What skill would you like to master?
Purling. You laugh, but it’s true. I can knit but not purl. There’s something about that reverse stitch my brain won’t encompass. I ended up giving all my lovely yarn to my sister-in-law who can knit and purl beautifully.
I am totally not laughing. If you could have seen how many times I pulled out my work, you would understand. Did you sister-in-law at least make you something nice with your lovely yarn? 🙂
I can’t draw a straight line either, with or without a ruler.
I notice those women too on the subway and wish I could knit or even crochet. I’ve tried painting, jewelry making and drawing, but it would be fun to knit more than a long, long scarf.
Dru Ann
Next conference we are both at, I will teach you to crochet. The hardest thing about crochet is getting the tension right. Anyone can do it, I promise.
Photography for me. REAL photography where I adjust my depth of field and speed to get the gorgeous kind of photos I want. Many years ago I knew all of that with a simple SLR 35MM camera. I’ve gotten camera lazy.
Oh, haven’t we all. My peonies are getting ready to bloom…you need to come down and take some pictures!
I really pretty much can’t do anything. Except read. I knit … badly. I can cook a few things. That’s about it. I’m quite incompetent. I can’t ride a bike, or swim.
LOL! I love to bake, but don’t ask me to cook things like…dinner. You know, practical things. I can’t do that. And you may not bike or swim, but you tweet like a champ!
Ha!! I’m glad I haven’t driven everyone away with my excessive Tweeting! It is fun. 🙂