The Industrial Revolution was bound to happen.

I realised, while knitting row after row for the bottom of my cushion, that knitting machines are a good thing. Smart thing. But while allowing a machine to do the work would have had me resting my feet on a cushion a week ago, this slow-moving hand-knitting offers other pleasures.


I enjoy sewing my own clothes and knitting takes this one step further - I am making my own fabric. To see the neat and even fabric I'm creating so tediously by forming intricate loops - well, it's damn satisfying! It's also relaxing, doing something at a slower pace. And I don't feel as though I am wasting time when I watch tv, because I'm doing two things at once. Hand-made looks and feels different. As neat as my work is, it's still obviously not machine-made. And I like it. It looks cosy and feels, to my biased hand, better than machine knitting.

Not many people take the time nowadays to create things from scratch. We buy ready-made pastry and sauces in packets and hobby kits with pre-cut bits that you only have to glue or sew together and decorate. I'm probably going to cause some jaws to drop if I tell people that I made the whole thing by myself. With two pointy sticks. And some blue string.