Pick some patterns to help yourself dream

by Meg Dedolph

One of my favorite Knit 101 moments this year was when a new knitter walked in on the first night of class, whipped out her phone, and said, “I know I haven’t even tried to knit yet, but I really want to make this vest. Isn’t it cool?” She had already bought the pattern for fear that it might go out of print before she had the skills to tackle the project.

(I know you’re all curious: it’s this one.)

But honestly, what the project was doesn’t matter.

What matters is the idea that - even before this person had knit a single stitch - she was already dreaming big.

When I was just starting out as a knitter, I bought a copy of “45 Fine and Fanciful Hats to Knit” by Anna Zilboorg. I leafed through that book over and over, admiring the vibrant colorwork and the fun hat shapes and imagining the day I would feel like I had enough skill to try one of her patterns.

I think it’s important when you’re learning something new, to have a dream, a vision of what Future You is going to do with this skill that Present You is working to acquire. Maybe you want to make some adorable hats for grandchildren on the horizon. Maybe you want to make a complicated cabled sweater to remind you of your Irish roots. Maybe you want to be the kind of person who wears eccentrically colorful knitted wool socks.

 (Maybe, like me, you want to be able to make funny little crocheted critters and vegetables with eyes.)

Go through Ravelry or Instagram or Pinterest or a stack of library books and give yourself the gift of some dreams this winter.

 It’s not a promise to Future You, this dreaming exercise. Maybe you change your mind and don’t make any of these things. Maybe you only make one of them. That’s fine. You don’t even have to tell anyone what you pick.

Here’s the point: Any one of us can scroll the headlines these days and find something that takes away a little hope about the kind of world we want to live in. 

Making something with your hands is the antidote to the hope-killers of the world for everyone.

It’s a chance to create something the way you want, no matter how long it takes. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a winter hat or a steak grilled exactly right or a perfect fried egg.

When you pick out a dream project - even if it’s beyond your grasp now - you’re giving yourself a little vote of confidence. And when you practice hope about little things like colorwork mittens, maybe you build the muscles to hope about bigger things.

We want you to have a few big hopeful dreams to hold onto this year. When you’re ripping out a project, or restarting something for what feels like the eleventh time, having a little spark of a Big Dream makes mistakes feel like speedbumps and not brick walls. 

And when someday feels like now? We’ll help you pick out the yarn.