I often find my husband giving me sideways glances when he sees me knitting up itty bitty pieces of undecipherable shapes, slowly starting a pile on my knitting desk. I can tell he wants to ask me what the heck I am doing but stops short to save himself from my rolling eyes and sometimes less than... uh-hum...polite response. I know the curiosity boils up inside him, not because he cares what I am making, but more because he just has to know what 4 squares, 2 triangles and 2 circles with long tails hanging around will actually be MacGyver-ed into.
So somewhere between square three and circle one I know the question comes...he blurts out in his most pleasant, inquisitive tone "So, what is that you are working on?". He cares not what the answer is, I could say I'm knitting a rocket ship that I plan to launch in the backyard once I figure out how to make this yarn fire retardant, he just needs an answer so that square + square no longer equals unknown.
So I smile inside and answer simply "It's a rabbit". And I show him the picture in the pattern so he can visualize it. I can read his mind (I haven't shared this fact with him after all these years, but I can) and he's thinking "Wow, what a colossal waste of time". But instead he responds with feigned interest, "hmmph", picks up his newspaper and carries on with his life. He doesn't get it.
He doesn't understand that when you care enough to spend so much time and effort into making something that a piece of your love gets implanted in that object, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant that object is. So what may be 4 squares, 2 triangles and 2 circles to him can actually give comfort and love to someone else.
He doesn't get it, but it doesn't matter. Because SHE does.
By: Ala Ela:
