Use as many senses as you can when you interact with your knitting. While I don’t recommend you taste your yarn, you can use all four other senses: look at your yarn, feel your yarn, listen to the yarn as you
Take a moment to really smell your yarn, particularly if it is made with natural fibers
Many yarns don’t smell at all, but many do.
If it smells musty or worse yet diesel-y (see Stephanie Purl-McPhee’s post entitled First Time for Everything) put the yarn down and figure out either how to get rid of the smell or how to return the yarn.
Otherwise, inhale the earthy, sheepy goodness or the earthy, even fishy smells of silk or the clean, earthy smell of cotton.
Describe that smell to yourself and sit with it for a few moments. Record your thoughts in your journal.
Do this whenever you start a new project to connect more deeply with your materials.
Meknitation – pronounced with a short “e”, rhymes with meditation.
- Meknitations: Undo a Stitch, Notice Exactly What is Happening to the Yarn
- Meknitations: Think about 3 ways knitting has improved your life
- MeKnitations: Focus on the weight of the project
- MeKnitations: Inhale All Your Yarn Has to Offer
- MeKnitations: Making Stitches in Slow Motion
- MeKnitations: How Do Your Knitting Needles Sound?