Knitting Trust

Huzzah! My knitting stuff arrived today! And by knitting stuff I mean two balls of yarn, one of which has a set of knitting needles and probably a quarter of a scarf attached to it. I started this scarf at least half a year ago, and it has spent the majority of its short life sitting on a shelf wishing someone dedicated would come and complete it.

It's not that I don't like knitting. I like it fine, on occasion. On quite a few occasions I have thought about knitting for long hours, painting a picture in my head of me sitting in a comfy chair knitting, perhaps with a fire dancing in the hearth, some classical music playing, with a warm mug of tea nearby. It's a lovely picture. I think to myself, "I love knitting; I am just the type of person who would sit down for hours and have a complete scarf done before bedtime." I am wrong about this. I will set up my quaint little scene, make myself some tea, turn on some classical music, and curl up on the sofa with my knitting. But often after a few rows of stitches the fun evaporates and I start to question everything. "Is my yarn unraveling?" "How long should this be?" "Did I drop a stitch?" This concern always poses the greatest problems. For those of you who are sensible enough to have never attempted knitting, dropping a stitch is when you forget to follow through on one tiny loop in one row and it affects your entire piece, be it scarf, sock, or halter top. After two or three rows, every stitch looks like a dropped stitch to me, so I will add in stitch after stitch in an attempt to fix this imaginary mishap. This is why my scarf-to-be has gotten an inch wider since its beginnings.

With all these imaginary dropped stitches looming, I am always inclined to simply give up and throw my scarf into a drawer so I can pretend it doesn't exist for a while. But my dear friend Cecily (the one responsible for teaching me to knit in the first place) always assures me that "It will all work itself out in the end." She assures me of this over and over again, "With knitting, it always works itself out in the end."

Looking at my knitting stuff, and at everything else in my life, I am struck by the wisdom of this sentiment, to just calm down and trust that it will all work itself out in the end. I am not sure this is true for knitting, because I am the one doing the knitting and I am confident that I could somehow ruin it. But it is so comforting in the midst of the dropped stitches in life to realize that God is in control, and that he will work it all out. Romans 8:28 says "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." It will not come out a ruin. God is working it all out for the good of you. Trust in that.

Truly His,
Caroline