I love Knitting and Spinning so much I can only think of words like obsession or passion to describe my attachment to this pastime. Pastime...what a lame word. Obsession...as if there were something perverse or unhealthy about this.
I am not really an artist, or am I?
This feels more than a hobby, but is it?
Anyway there is no word that describes how I take this vocation as seriously as a job, with all the enthusiasm of play, with all the pride of a master artisan, and with the creativity of an artist.
Parents model behavior to children, so all my knitting around my girls made them demand that I teach them how to knit. But they were to young. So I looked up how to finger knit on the web. But soon that was not enough, they wanted needles. They feel so comfy and homey and so in their place when we all sit quietly side-by-side knitting. It is as if time has stopped. We love our knitting and sewing days and it has made the three of us love winter and all the time indoors. Soup on the stove and us quietly making stuff by hand.
Soon after, some friends got tired of seeing me knit all the time and asked me to teach their children how to finger knit. I found teaching to be as much fun as doing. Then I taught last summer at a summer camp. I had to compete with basketball and kickball and volleyball and drumming and swimming and to my surprise, finger knitting became the rage at the camp! Even the boys, even the boys who were great athletes, the ones who were loud and strong would want to learn how to finger knit and they too, would get soooo quiet. Soon I would have a room full of quiet and focus and still this good energy. And that is the energy I crave and now I was sharing it with a room full of people, I really could not say how much I loved this.
My daughters were so proud of themselves. At camp, they realized that they were really good at something that others were just learning and this made them feel so grown up. My oldest assisted me in teaching. Teaching together was a wonderful for us. We worked together as a team, she was my partner, yet only 7 years old. We felt really happy together.
Now I am teaching one day a week after school. I am also starting to teach at my homeschooling
group. I am joining a crafting club that a girlfriend started and I offered to teach there. Teaching, teaching, what is going on? Am I a teacher?
Can I actually get a job teaching? Oh, who knows. All I know is that they say, "Do what you love." So they better be right. They say, "Follow your heart." So I am following. Wish us luck!
