There are many turning points in all our lives. Some are more extreme than others. For me there are the usual changes that life brings. Leaving school and heading to University; leaving university and starting work; marriage, first home, first baby. All reflective of life for many. Nothing outstanding or different. But certainly representing changes in direction.
Then there was the first interstate move – Melbourne to Canberra. Did it change my life? Was it a turning point? There was a second baby. And I have written previously about the lessons I learnt from spending a lonely 11 months in Canberra.
There were other interstate moves: Canberra to Melbourne; Melbourne to Adelaide; Adelaide to Melbourne; Melbourne back to Adelaide; Adelaide to Canberra; Canberra to Benalla. Again I have written a few times about retirement and our move to Benalla.
Perhaps a significant turning point was both children leaving home within six months. Our daughter went to Perth to study at the Western Australian academy of Performing Arts. Our son headed to the Australian Maritime College in Launceston. So there were no visits for a meal or to get Mum to help with the washing, stories others whose children had moved out told. I had always thought that when I no longer had a need to care for our young people, I would be able to concentrate on career. But it was a bigger mental and emotional shift that I had expected and it did take some time to make the change. Perhaps a contributing factor was that they were quite young – our daughter was only 16 and our son 18 when they headed off to train for their future careers. It was certainly a turning point in our lives as we learnt to be just the two of us again.
But recently, there has been a new “turning point”.
I have been learning about short row knitting. This involves turning the knitting before reaching the end of the row – a turning point. Then doing this in subsequent rows making each row shorter that the previous row. Eventually you need to knit across the full row, past all the “turning points”. Many years ago I had taught myself how to do this, but the on-line class I have been working through has shown so much more about how to make these turns, and how to hide them when finishing the shaping by knitting across the whole row. The only method I knew was called “wrap and turn”. Now I know about “yarn over”, “Japanese” and “German” methods for short row knitting. I also know how to use this technique in shaping shoulders so that they are more even and easy to join. And there are further lessons still to cover with more ways to use “short row knitting”.
So I have come to a turning point in my knitting – learning about different “turning points” in knitting.
Joy Shirley
May 2020
Then there was the first interstate move – Melbourne to Canberra. Did it change my life? Was it a turning point? There was a second baby. And I have written previously about the lessons I learnt from spending a lonely 11 months in Canberra.
There were other interstate moves: Canberra to Melbourne; Melbourne to Adelaide; Adelaide to Melbourne; Melbourne back to Adelaide; Adelaide to Canberra; Canberra to Benalla. Again I have written a few times about retirement and our move to Benalla.
Perhaps a significant turning point was both children leaving home within six months. Our daughter went to Perth to study at the Western Australian academy of Performing Arts. Our son headed to the Australian Maritime College in Launceston. So there were no visits for a meal or to get Mum to help with the washing, stories others whose children had moved out told. I had always thought that when I no longer had a need to care for our young people, I would be able to concentrate on career. But it was a bigger mental and emotional shift that I had expected and it did take some time to make the change. Perhaps a contributing factor was that they were quite young – our daughter was only 16 and our son 18 when they headed off to train for their future careers. It was certainly a turning point in our lives as we learnt to be just the two of us again.
But recently, there has been a new “turning point”.
I have been learning about short row knitting. This involves turning the knitting before reaching the end of the row – a turning point. Then doing this in subsequent rows making each row shorter that the previous row. Eventually you need to knit across the full row, past all the “turning points”. Many years ago I had taught myself how to do this, but the on-line class I have been working through has shown so much more about how to make these turns, and how to hide them when finishing the shaping by knitting across the whole row. The only method I knew was called “wrap and turn”. Now I know about “yarn over”, “Japanese” and “German” methods for short row knitting. I also know how to use this technique in shaping shoulders so that they are more even and easy to join. And there are further lessons still to cover with more ways to use “short row knitting”.
So I have come to a turning point in my knitting – learning about different “turning points” in knitting.
Joy Shirley
May 2020
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