Why I love knitting. Why you should love knitting
“Knitting is the new Yoga” Have you heard this phrase before? The benefits for reducing stress, and mental health are well-known but Knitting has other attributes. For me, Knitting is more than only a hobby. Is also related to how I want to feel, work and live. Knitting is growth and the perfect conjunction of data, creativity and technology. Let me show you why:
> Knitting is data.
Yes, do you know that to follow the instructions of a pattern requires a lot of attention and care? Improvising some project could be great sometimes but it is not recommended for beginners. You could end up with a sweater only useful as a crop top for your dog or with a blanket for your couple. To understand and gain knowledge about a size requires training. Analyzing data could make us reach intuition towards future projects. Knitting sometimes could be really disappointing. You are at home, watching Netflix and knitting at the same time and, suddenly, you realize that one loose stitch is welcoming you. At which point I was distracted? Counting the stitches is important to work well. Attention and detail on data, count.
> Knitting is creativity.
The colors, the needle number, the fabrics and the point change the result completely. What you choose is not always the same, because you’re under the influence of your environment (season, location or temperature), your mental state (happy or sad), your experiences or the final destination of the project. The project will remind you, in the future, what were you doing, what were you feeling… Any project is different, because every decision taken is unique and with no return. The whole process, from scratch to the end, requires creativity without noticing it. This reminds me of one famous quote:
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
— Albert Einstein
If that is not wonderful, what is?
> Knitting is technology.
Maybe it’s a weird assumption, but let me talk about what Knitting has to do with coding, development and agile methodologies.
When I tried to learn R a few years ago, I was surprised by the similarities of code with Knitting: you train and learn a language, and R packages are like patterns: from installing the package to the comprehension in which you finally “knit” some project. The funny part here is that, as in life, we could try and experiment new things and learn from failure. Knitting is agile by nature because every mistake is a lesson learned. It’s amazing how some Agile principles fit with a Knitting project!
All in all, the final result is not magic, it is due to patience, training, work, resilience, frustration management and also with all the previous ingredients mastery is attained.
Knitting is the perfect analogy of life.
