Recently I was commissioned to re-create a Christmas Stocking. It had really got me thinking about the legacy of a knitter and their knits. This stocking has outlived both the knitter and the pattern. It has survived twenty-two Christmas's with out one repair. The stitches are firm, maybe not as crisp, and holding tight after all these years. It has gotten me thinking about the quality of my own knitting. I have been working on an advent calendar for my son and as I make each ornament I keep in the back of my mind: I want this to last for years. Each stitch may not be perfect, but must be knit well. I can imagine that the woman who knit this stocking was thinking much of the same.
I charted out most of the stocking and while I was charting it out and studying the stocking I noticed an oddity. The number of cast on stitches was rapidly decreased after the name had been knitted by 10 stitches. I began to wonder: Am I re-knitting her mistakes? Twenty-two years later am I looking at a beautiful finished product and planning on remaking her mistakes? I think about my own knitting and how I will make a mistake, but keep going as long as it doesn't alter the overall product. Will someone, someday, go back and re-create my mistakes and wonder: Why did she decrease like that?
The knitting is slow, as the needles too small for the yarn, and I recently had to rip back several rows to correct some of my color work. I hope that even with my small mistakes, it will become as well loved and cherished as the original. I am nearly done (I am working the gusset right now) and when it is complete I will breathe a sigh of relief. I will have accomplished at least one Christmas wish this year.
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