The Trouble with knitting

 

Wrist warmers in the Scheepjes wool recycled from plastics. This wool, marked as aran weight requiring number 5 needles, tended to split a lot but I think these gloves will be as cosy as a fleece.

With all the Christmas knitting come to an end I'm beginning reluctantly to veer back towards the computer in the morning  instead of taking up residence in a knitting position by the stove. However with a few back jobs on the go the transition is slow...and knitting as an activity allows time for poems to wiggle their way in...

The Trouble with Knitting

Everything is fine.

The wrist warmers for my nth niece

are on the needles.

The feral pigeon has returned to the coop

turfing out its woodland cousin again

and though I am trying to avoid it

a  poem is trying to make its way into this weave,

the split wool, the dropped stitch

whispering of yarns I might like to engage,

the pauses between the knit and the purl,

the silences at the end of a set

begging for narrative.

Even as I briefly dip my hand

to the grate to adjust the coals

I know that the scent of peat and swamp

that clings to my fingertips

will join in the chorus

and clamour for a verse or two in its name.

Copyright Cathy Leonard 2025