Competitive Knitting???

Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition - in having put forth the best within you.
              ~Henry J. Kaiser

I have been a knitter since I was 10 years old and my mother and grandmother taught me the skill. However, it is only since retirement that I have approached the craft with a serious intent to learn and improve. About the time I retired a yarn shop opened up very close to me, and they offered a "Knit Night" where a group of knitters gather each Thursday evening to knit together. We share our projects, interesting new techniques, and help one another. I have attended a knitters' convention and taken a few classes. All of this has challenged me to learn new techniques and practice them in interesting projects. 

Two summers ago I completed a lovely shawl, complete with almost a thousand little crystal beads, each hand applied. It is lovely... I wore it to my niece's wedding and enjoyed the compliments it received. The "girls" at Knit Night all encouraged me to enter it in the county fair last year... so I did. I entered that, a sweater I knit for my sister, and a baby sweater set done in the Norwegian color work known as Fair Isle. All three entries won blue ribbons and the baby sweater set won a "grand champion" ribbon as best in the show for the category. The shawl won a "reserve champion" ribbon, taking a second place to another beautiful shawl as best in show for that category.

I was thrilled, of course. But inside a little part of me was disappointed that my shawl was not considered "the best". I knew how hard I had worked on it and it really is a thing of beauty... That is not to disagree with the judge, as the shawl that won was equally beautiful, beaded as well. But I wanted to win. 

The more I ruminated on this, the more determined I became to win that "best in show" designation again. I had some really lovely yarn that I had found at the knitters' convention. It was literally hand painted and so soft. I wanted to make a sweater with it. And I wanted the sweater to WIN. I searched and finally found the perfect pattern. It was by far the most complicated pattern ever, with elaborate lace panels and shaping (that is, it is knit to narrow at the waist and then widen again for the hips) and I intended to knit it perfectly.

To complete the project perfectly, I had to inspect my work often and found that I often had to "unknit" to fix an imperfection. I found a flaw in one sleeve after I had completed the whole thing, and had to learn to drop a stitch and go down 47 rows to fix it, and then redo the knitting all the way back up-- kind of like fixing a run in a large stocking. I learned to do an invisible seam, but backwards because of the special stitch pattern used. I learned to make what are called "bobbles", which are little 3D balls that are a part of the pattern. Finally it was done, assembled and ready. I took it over to the fair this past Saturday, along with two other projects. 

Lanny and I went back to the fair on Sunday to see how I had done. All three of my projects won Blue Ribbons!  Yay!!! 

But the sweater did not win "grand champion" or even "reserve champion". There were two shawls that were beautifully knit that were given these designations.  I found myself feeling pretty disappointed... how could such a complicated, intricate work, so perfectly wrought, not win? How could I lose again??? I found myself thinking at first that if I put everything I had into a project and it still wasn't good enough, then forget it. No more competition for me-- I hated the hollow feeling of not winning. Hated it!

Then it dawned on me. My quest for perfection had indeed made me a winner, even if the sweater was not. The project was almost secondary to what I had learned. Look at all those skills I had learned and perfected! Look at the experience and patience to redo mistakes I had gained! Look at the enjoyment and satisfaction I had gained in making a beautiful object with my own two hands! That was what I loved about knitting and about competing-- the quest for perfection led to discovering all kinds of new things. And in the process, something beautiful had been created. Beautiful enough to win a blue ribbon at the county fair. If other people had done the same thing, and made objects that were just a little bit more perfect than mine, that did not diminish one bit my own achievement.

So, perhaps with a different attitude this time, I will begin to look for next year's project. I will look for lovely yarn, a complicated pattern that will challenge me to learn new things. And I will enjoy the process of creating something beautiful. And THAT will make me a winner! 

This is the shawlette (kind of a triangular scarf) I knit that also won a blue ribbon. The baby set is intended as a gift, so I'm not going to show it...