why knitting is like writing

1. Both start small (letters, words, sentences; stitches, pattern repeats) and build from there.

2. Both can be done with relatively inexpensive tools, though someone will always sell you something pricier.

3. There are rules.

4. The rules matter.

5. Once you know what you are doing, you can break the rules.

6. Sometimes.

7. Pretty soon, you will make something that looks like something.

8. But it can take years before you make something you're proud of.

9. If it's not working, you can trash it and start again.

10. Often that's a good idea.

11. Sometimes you trash something accidentally. Stitches fall off the needle, you lose the scribbled piece of paper, the computer crashes.

12. This is very sad.

13. The thing you make to replace the thing you trashed will not be the same.

14. You will always lament that.

15. Even though the thing you eventually make might be better.

16. Some people will never understand why you do it. They will say that you could buy it for less, that it takes too much time, that other people are doing it better.

17. They will be right.

18. They are missing the point.