SUPPORT: Hélène´s knitting tutorials
Three stitches per second is my contribution to a book after Lela Nargi. Most knitters know it: getting through a difficult time often means knitting through it. It´s this home truth that comes through clearly in the writtings gathered in this book. Knitting through it: Inspiring stories for times of trouble, Voyageurs Press, 2008.
Hardcover, 7.3 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches, 224 pages
For sale HERE
Read an extract of my contribution, page 52:
"I did not decide to quit smoking. (...) The withdrawl didn't
go smoothly and often approached crisis. As soon as a crisis began, I
put a piece of nicotine gum in my mouth, rushed headlong for my knitting,
and knitted frenetically - five stitches, one row, one minute, two rows,
my heart beating fast and my hands damp. Until it passed. Then a second
crisis would begin, too soon to take another piece of nicotine gum. I
threw myself into my knitting and knit like I'd entered a trance. One
stitch, one second, two stitches, two seconds. At full speed I chewed
the gum that had been completely emptied of its nicotine. Ten rows a minute.
I counted the stitches aloud: 12 stitches, three stitches a second. I
couldn't keep this pace up for very long. I don't believe that I would
be capable of knitting so quickly today. Then the crisis was over. And
there I was like a madwoman, chewing frenetically and panting out numbers
- 56 stitches - my body tensed, bent forward, with my hands shaking, one
stitch dropped - 123 stitches - my mouth bloody because I'd bitten my
tongue - 354 stitches."