Life and Knitting

So many changes have taken place in my life in the span of one year that I sometimes have trouble taking it all in.
It is often hard to feel really settled here in Italy.
I know that it is temporary and I am constatly battling the cultural differences that tend to chip away at my well-ingrained perspective of how the world should run.

I had to find sanity somewhere.
From spring of senior year at A&M through this year in Italy, one thing has remained constant.

Knitting.

That's right.
And I stand proudly by my grandma-like hobby.

I may have moved from every comfort of home: family, friends, Tex-Mex...
But, knitting is a worldwide phenomenon.

After a lengthy search in the fall for someone who could continue to teach me how to create something out of a ball of yarn and two sticks, my hobby was restored to it's rightful place in my life.

Daniela has been a huge blessing to me this year--and I doubt she even knows it.
She is my refuge from the city, my quiet place to practice Italian, and make a fool of myself as I make mistake after mistake.

Currently, my project is still in process.
I started working on a sweater with Daniela around the end of October.
At this point, I will be displaying my handiwork when I am 40.
I really hope sweaters are still stylish in 2024.



But, much like other things in life, it's the journey that counts, right?
And I love having an excuse to go see Daniela and the other ladies that knit with her.

We're a very multi-generational, international little family.
I admire their work, they laugh at me, and often they give me candy.
I feel like that little girl in the Worhter's butterscotch commercials getting candy from her grandpa.

Knitting has not only supplied me with a creative outlet, but I have caught glimpses of culture thorugh my time there.
Daniela normally charges for each lesson, but I started helping her with translation for her website and she said we were even.
I haven't done any translating this semester and she refuses to let me pay.
Once you are friends, all is taken care of, it's about the relationship now, not the money.
It may take longer to make a friend in Italy, but once they trust you, they respond with extreme loyalty.

I have learned so much from living overseas this year.
I have learned some of the things that make me tick: creativity and friendships.

Knitting and Daniela makes me feel like I really live here.

But, I think next time I'll make a hat.
Surely that will be finished before I really am a grandma.