The one hobby I wish I could learn.

There is a hobby out there that I have longed to learn.  It is a hobby that I truly believe will make me a happier and calmer person.  I have seen people who participate in this hobby happily at work while engaged in conversation with others.  Sipping coffee.  Or quietly in their own world, happy and at peace.  The hobby I speak of is knitting.

My 10 year old daughter, Hannah, knows how to knit.  My mother and mother in law knit. Many of my friends and acquaintances knit.  My sister in laws knit.  I do not know how to knit.  I have tried several times to learn this calming hobby.  My neighbor gave me several lessons, my mother tried to give me a couple lessons and yes my daughter tried to teach me.  For some reason, I seem to be incapable of learning this peaceful and invaluable hobby that so many people truly love and embrace.  I feel left out when I see a group of women knitting and chatting at a local coffee house.  I wonder what it must feel like to have a common interest like knitting.  I even put off reading the book "The Friday Night Knitting Club" because I fear that I will end the book with a feeling of regret that I have yet to pick up knitting.

I wonder what it is about me that makes this seem like an unachievable goal.  Am I impatient? Probably.  Am I uncoordinated? Definitely.  Am I stupid?  No, I am not.  What I am is a wife and mother who is not able to manage my time wisely and find the time to learn how to do something I talk about doing so often.  The fact of the matter is, the people who try to teach me, leave me with the knowledge and the tools to knit.  I put the project aside, intending to try later, but get engrossed in something else.  By the time I can get back to it, I have forgotten everything I learned.  I look at the yarn and the sticks and wonder where do I begin?  At that point it seems easier to just pick up a book and read.  Why not, I know how to read.

My husband mentioned getting me knitting classes for my birthday which is in 2 weeks.  I hope he reads this blog and seriously considers those classes as the perfect gift.  I think that a set time each week for me to devote to this hobby will help me to get to a point that picking up the yarn and sticks won't scare me.  It would be a great feeling of accomplishment to knit a scarf for each of my children for next winter.  Something that I made for them, something that I had to work so hard to create.