I want to be carried off by muscle memory

It's OK to go slow

the skein 
flips and jumps
in the basket
driving the thick web
down the line--
a warm wonder 
from a single strand.
how smooth the
bamboo sticks rasp
as they meet and meet
again. mom 
catches me before
the stitch drops--
whoa whoa whoa
it’s ok to go slow
but I don’t want 
to be a beginner 
to be crampy--
i want to be Charlotte,
to be fast, to be 
carried off by
muscle memory,
the way the shawl woman 
is during the service.
i grasp the Sugar n Cream
too tight, all elbows,
insert, wrap, and
pull through,
losing track of 
front and back
of count, of purl
and time and
stitches --
i sigh, and drop 
everything, lean into
my mom’s soft 
shoulder while 
she smiles softly 
and clicks on.

---

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.”

--Chief Seattle

Poem 16 of 31 in the series “The Liminal Season.”

I took three days off because I was sick. Pardon the interruption. Today’s poem was prompted by the word “web” — and for whatever reason it immediately made me think of learning to knit from my mom. Perhaps it was the giver, my friend, Susan, who is very artistic.

Do you knit of crochet? Was it easy for you to learn?