To knit is to weave and knot together in a pleasing way. Those who knit take simple yarn and follow a pattern to produce something beautiful. The pattern may be a written set of instruction, or they may be creating their own design. Either way, the person creating understands how the material responds and how the different types of stitches look. Psalm 139: 13 tells us God knit us together in our mother's womb. He created us to His specifications. He knew, He knows every detail of how His creation works and creates wonderfully complex individuals. To some He gave the ability to knit together yarn, to others He did not. I have tried crochet, which is similar but different, and I can make a long string but nothing else.
As writers, we take words and we knit them together into wonderfully complex compositions. Our words are our yarn that we choose to place according to a design. The results can be encouraging, challenging, instructive, and beautiful. Depending on the pattern we follow, we may end up with poetry or prose, essay or story. Just as the knitter makes a pattern their own through colour choices and stitch size, our word choices and placement change the outcome of our writing. One word may result in something humorous, a similar word might change the tone to provocative. In either case, we are using simple building blocks and knitting them together in interesting ways.
As we sit down to work on our craft, to knit the pieces of our projects together may we follow the instructions of the one who chose to knit us together. May we speak truth in love. May we use humour well. May we represent facts accurately and explain things beautifully. Most importantly, no matter what form our writing takes, may we seek to honour God with the words He has given us.
I love the analogy you made here, dear Lorilee. Lovely post.
ReplyDeleteBlessings.
Lovely analogy Lorilee! Many blessings.
ReplyDeleteAs a knitter and crocheter I love this analogy Lorilee! I hadn't seen this before.
ReplyDeleteWow, Lorilee, thank you for this consideration of our writing. My wife is a lifelong knitter and has knit countless beautiful blankets, mittens, baby outfits and other things. You reminded me as a writer knit together in my mother's womb I have the joy of knitting words together. I pray you and all of us called to write will continue to knit beauty with our words.
ReplyDeleteWow, Lorilee. I love this analogy. Though I don’t knit often, I have created a few projects. My Mom and Nana however were incredibly productive knitters. The clacking of needles is a sound I relish from my childhood. I was always fascinated by the way different colours infused mittens, blankets and toques. You have left me with warm memories and a new way of looking at writing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this wonderful metaphor, Lorilee! I'm more a crocheter than a knitter, but the principles for writing you gave us still hold true!
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