a KNITTING TAROT spread for a KNITTING TAROT deck

i have been giving some thought, in the past months, over whether or not the KT decks would benefit from having specific, knitting-centered spreads -- layouts of cards invented specifically for use with the KT deck. the readings i have done in the past, for myself and for others, using the KT deck, have been in a "cosmic eye" spread, which is a favorite of mine just for the fact that it allows such freedom and does not assign specific "meanings" to the placement of every card.

this isn't to say that i've never used any other spread, or that i'm not interested in hearing about new ones. there are different spreads for different kinds of readings. i certainly do not want the sole responsibility and authority for "creating" spreads for the KNITTING TAROT decks. but, since i did want a certain kind of reading -- i had a specific kind of question in mind -- i did take it upon myself to create a very basic, simple spread just for the KT.

this is a "project spread". maybe i'll come up with a better name for it later. what i wanted -- and what i could imagine other people would want with this deck -- is a way to do a reading at the outset of a project. a knitting project, presumably. in my case, this week, i wanted a reading for the specific project of printing the KT book. i knew the general outlines of questions i had, and, not trying to put too many bells and whistles on it, i came up with a spread.

i wonder if anyone can figure out why i put the cards down in the order i did. i hope someone can, because it was pretty intuitive. i'm almost sure it will be for another knitter.

anyone? anyone? bueller? bueller?

somebody's gonna figure it out.

here's the breakdown of the six cards in this reading.

card one: impetus. for the project you are now undertaking or about to undertake; for the class you are about to sign up for. for the event you are travelling to attend. all these things are "projects" for which one could do a reading. this card will give you a little something to meditate on, zooming in on what your motives, or alterior motives are, in starting up.

card two: a closer look at surrounding factors. "the reasons for the reasons", you might say. there's always a little more to "why am i doing this?" than just the outright "reason" -- this card takes you down a layer or two beyond that simple answer.

card three: rising action. this could be interpreted as, perhaps, the "height of emotion" to which this project will take you, be it at the beginning, middle, or end -- the high point in the graph, or, if not really that "high", at least the strongest frequency this project will be bringing out in you, as querent and as "actor".

card four: warnings. every tarot reading needs them -- hell, they are what most people come to the tarot looking for. the "bad" stuff. what (and who) to avoid. this card will tell you a little more about what aspects of your outlook, or factors surrounding you, might make you lose your hold on the project and its meaning. (the card's position is where it is for a reason: anyone? anyone? bueller? bueller?)

card five: short term or corporeal effects. i lump them together because, frankly, all physical aspects of life are short term. this card reflects not so much what you as a questing and questioning spirit "take away" from the experience, but more what the experience "is" or "looks like" on the outside, and to outsiders.

card six: overall outcome. that's for you, as querent, but it's also for your project in general.

***

necessity is the mother of invention; i wanted a reading, so i created a spread. and i put the spread to use mere moments after scribbling it down on paper. this is MY "project spread" for the printing and typesetting of the KT book.

do forgive the flash photo. it's just impossible not to use the flash in my kitchen.

card one: GRAFTING (THE LOVERS) goodness, that's no surprise. the impetus for the KNITTING TAROT project as a whole was to create a marriage -- or at least a love-child -- between two things that i loved so much, knitting and tarot. now, actually, a third -- printing -- has been added into the mix.

card two: NINE OF NEEDLES (SELF-INFLICTED KNITTING) hmmm. am i surprised? this is a card that, in the KT, represents perhaps taking on a bigger mouthful than one is ordinarily used to -- simply because that's the feeling one is itching to have. a project so big it's almost outdoing you, and yet, you push ahead.

i think you'd have to say that about somebody who writes texts for an entire tarot deck, goads her sister into illustrating all of them and announces plans to handset the type for the book and print a few hundred, before actually owning a printing press (or ever having used one.) then again, i'd also say that i have no particular abilities that have made this go so well so far other than sheer nine-of-needles energy, and that i think other people should be doing stuff like this more often. i agree wholeheartedly that, for this reading, the nine of needles in this position is as satisfactory to me as seeing the lovers in position one. so far, we are making perfect sense.

card three: THE STAR if the star, as the text i wrote for it in the KT says, is "a reminder to be true to – and inspired by – our own vision," then for sure that is what has driven this project as far as it has come, and what will drive it forward to completion. when i look at the decks, it becomes clear to me -- incomprehensible in a way, but clear nonetheless -- that you can do anything if you set out to do it and aren't afraid of the mistakes. whenever i worry about challenges ahead, and the often insurmountable-feeling task of typesetting and printing every page and word of the book, all i do is look at the decks, and remember all the little questions and stumbling blocks that made their creation seem improbable -- and yet, here they are, boxes and boxes of them.

card four: THE MAGICIAN this is interesting!! a "warning" about the magician card? i LOVE the magician card!

the first thing that came to my mind here, is, actually, something i expressed earlier in this post. i don't want to be responsible for the "meaning" of the KT. i want to be the "magician" for MY part in it -- i want to make it and wrap it up and hand it out, and i want to give a few suggestions (as i am right in this reading) on what to do with it -- but i don't want to get all oprah about it. and i doubt that i will have very much communication with people about it when it's finished and out there and in other knitters' and taroists' hands. some communication, but not a lot, and not in any authoritative way.

could that be what this card is doing here?

card five: ACE OF NEEDLES well duh. creating for the sake of creating -- of course this would be the short term, real-world outcome of printing the KT book -- then it would exist. the itch of the nine of needles would be scratched. climbing the mountain because it's there, and all that. (it's also a suggestion that yes, if there was any doubt, it WILL be completed. which is a good thing. i sure didn't want to see the "RIPPING OUT" card here.)

card six: THE MOON again, very interesting and meditative. at the end of it all, this sense of mystery? a shadowy, secret place? how odd. then again... maybe not. but when it comes to the moon it's better not to try to pin it down too hard -- it's not meant for that. this feeling, though, is something i will be on the lookout for, when all is said and done.

***

TRY THE PROJECT SPREAD WITH A DECK YOU ALREADY OWN, and tell me about the results! i'll be trying the spread again too, and would be happy to read for a couple folks with it.

"the literal truth of your magical system"

The great mythographer Joseph Campbell once commented that the world is full of creation stories and all of them are wrong. The Tarot is like that: full of origin stories, and probably all of them wrong. They are wrong because they take a compelling idea as literal truth. Wrong because they need that literal belief to take the idea seriously, and if someone should disprove once and for all these origin tales they will have lost their hold on its meaning and value. But if we can learn to take these origin tales as myths, as divine play, then not only can we let go of this need to prove the superiority of one to all others, we also can appreciate the poetic truth of each one. And we can marvel at this amazing work, this pack of seventy-eight pictures that somehow adapts itself to so many spiritual and historical traditions.

-- Rachel Pollack, The Forest of Souls

well, it's pretty obvious what one of my holiday gifts was this past week. i am excited to read rachel pollack's book in full and am sure i will have more to report as time goes on. in the "ask the knitting tarot" category in 2006 i'd like to make a more specific and scholarly/creative approach to use of the KNITTING TAROT deck, while interspersing such entries with simple examples of cards and texts for the frequent newcomers to the list. i feel more prepared to "go deeper", though, since my own deck is sitting right here, and since i am using it, not infrequently.

a year ago, we began printing the cards. the cards have been finished for some months now, all packed up and safe. work on the book -- a much larger act -- has begun, and we will within a few months be able to determine when the printing for that leg of the entire project will be completed. i am typesetting an entire book, and it's a book that i wrote.. give it a second to sink in: it's really an incredible feeling. incredible when i'm sitting here listening to 80's internet radio and spacing a line; incredible when i'm looking at a proof. incredible when i read a sentence or two that i don't even remember writing, and think, "hey -- that's pretty good."

it's a big year in a big progress, and because so much of it is manual -- no more creative writing to be done, for sure -- i really want to use this category to get a little more thoughtful. we still love to get e-mails, and realize it would be more of a give-and-take process if anyone ELSE had a KT deck, but truly, the time will come.

got a question you think would make for a good reading? e mail us at theknittingtarot@gmail.com!

let's rap about "mundane divination" and "ill-dignified" cards

this past week's reader mail has brought up two very interesting points that might interest KNITTING TAROT practitioners-to-be.

the first of these issues was raised in a request for a reading i received last weekend. Help me, Knitting Tarot! read the subject line.

I'm at my wit's (or is that knit's?) end.  A few weeks ago, I purchased 2 sets of 5" US size 1 Brittany DPNs for making socks. I had them shipped to my office.
I haven't seen them since. My husband thinks he saw the packages (still wrapped in plastic and taped together, I believe) here in the house, in the family room. But I don't recall them being anywhere, except when I opened the package at my office. I have looked in all of my knitting baskets and drawers, ransacked the yarn chest, and even looked in my daughter's bedroom, in case she ran off with them. They seem to have vanished!

I'm wondering if there is any way the Knitting Tarot can help me find them. Perhaps the cards could give a clue to point me towards their hiding spot.

Natalie

looking for physical objects is not necessarily one of the strong suits of the tarot, any tarot.

i remind you that this reading truly cannot tell you where your needles have gotten to, but may spark something in your own mind about where they have ended up. asking questions like "where is this object?" and "what type of yarn is in my knitting bag right now?" is what is sometimes referred to as "mundane divination" -- parlor tricks, or, when pointing to the querent, an attempt to ferret out how well tarot "works", if at all. you were specific in your question, it seemed, that you were in fact just looking for the little subconscious boost to HELP you, not TELL you, which i admire, and which will probably make the cards more significant.

the three cards pulled read, from left to right: six of needles, two of needles, ten of needles. that in itself is interesting, isn't it? out of 78 cards, where only fourteen of them have the word "needles" on them at all, you, who are asking specifically ABOUT needles, got THREE.

the needles suit, in the KNITTING TAROT, deals specifically with creating for the sake of creating. ALL knitting, of course, is endowed with aspects of creation, but the needles suit is specific towards creation coming directly out of the need to BE creative, expressive, and free. where, in your physical world, do you, natalie, do most of this? at your office? in a specific place in your home? i'd immediately start thinking about, and looking in, that place.

let's now look at the individual cards and see if anything in their meanings jogs your memory in a way to lead you towards your AWOL double-points. the six of needles regards the experienceof being proud of what you knit, and receiving praise for what you knit. has this happened to you recently? did it happen at or around the time the needles were delivered? give it some thought.

the two of needles references choosing tools for a project. pretty funny, huh, that this would be the central card in a reading specifically about finding needles purchased for -- if i remember correctly -- some socks that you wished to make? so, the KNITTING TAROT is clearly asking you to harken back to the process of making the choices not only for these needles, but perhaps the yarn you were going to use with the needles themselves. do you already have the sock yarn? look there. or do you have a catalog, stack of catalogs, where you were looking to order yarn? look there, too.

the last cards is the ten of needles -- projects at critical mass. LOTS of projects. do YOU have a lot of unfinished projects lying around on the needles? search near those, as well.

i will of course be anxious to hear if this helps, but honestly, i think those little cards did a darned good job of suggesting some practical tips! i always think, when doing a reading like this, not only about the cards that DID show up -- and make some sense -- but how interesting it is that other cards that i would NEVER have been able to make ANY sense of, FAILED to show up. this is particularly true in this reading: these three cards actually seem to offer suggestions about times and places that you should revisit in hopes of finding your brittanys.

***

natalie found it all interesting, but so far, what she hasn't found is her needles. furthermore, the above suggestions were things she'd already thought of doing -- and had already done. not a bad reading, but perhaps superfluous -- both to natalie, and to the cards.

mundane divination -- a concept to keep in the back of the mind when using the KNITTING TAROT. who says for sure what is "mundane"? will we find that the reading eventually meant more to natalie than she thought it might? hopefully, she'll let us know!

next, belinda asked:

Can you tell me please - do you pay any credence at all to illdignified cards?

"ill-dignified", inverted or just plain upside-down cards... something i hadn't really addressed in this blog!

whether writing and developing decks, or working as a reader, i have never had a hard fast rule about inversions. sometimes it seems like they want to be read specifically as "different" than if they had been right-side-up; sometimes, they just seem to say "hey, i got shuffled funny, pay no mind to which way i am facing. you know what i mean."

i have never thought it necessary to include "meanings" of inverted cards in the text of the deck. i didn't do it for either one of the other decks i wrote, and for the KT -- where i will be setting each letter and space of the divining texts by hand, with tiny pieces of lead -- the "meanings" of inverted cards seem superfluous.

why take them so lightly? do inversions really just "mean the opposite" of what the right-side up card would mean? i suppose that's the quickie answer.
i tend to think of the average tarot practicioner -- and knitter -- as a smartie, and
try not to overexplain, but this is a good point to make. what subtle shades beyond "the opposite" might one interpret? how do you even determine what "the opposite" of a card's meaning might be?

let's take one example for now -- it may not be the example that "explains it all", but we can try another one another time. for now, let's talk about, say, the empress.

the KNITTING TAROT's text for the empress is as follows:

The Empress is the human inspiration whose creativity and warmth made us want to learn to knit.

We watched her in an unstructured environment, just doing her thing, and we learned as much as we might have in a class. We may not know how she came to be a knitter, or why she chooses the patterns she does, or for whom she makes all those socks; but she is prolific, downright surrounded by her knitting, and her needles are always flying.

The Empress is a “doer”. Knitting is what the Empress was born to do. She is entirely natural in her abilities and at ease with every step of the process, seeming to enjoy finishing work as much as she does going to the yarn shop to choose yarn and notions for a new project.

When you see the Empress in a reading, remember that we do not knit so that we may parade our knitting in front of others. We knit because we love the texture of the yarn in our hands, and the colors and the patterns, and the rhythm of our needles. These grassroots pleasures, found moment to moment in the act of creation, give the Empress in each of us her greatest reward.

***

okay, so that's what it says in the book. but what if you do your reading, and she's upside down?

that was a rhetorical question, by the way. what do YOU do if she's upside down in YOUR reading? give it some thought, based on the text.

when you read inversions, you're giving yourself permission to see 156 shades of grey, rather than just 78. is this for the better of your readings, or is it just convoluting? it's a personal decision, and i don't think anyone has to "stick" with one decision all the time. let's use this same example of the empress read as an "ill-dignified" or upside-down card. given the "standard" text, i'm sure it's easy to put something in mind when seeing an upside-down empress.

how, though, is she different from, say, the devil?

the text for the devil reads:

In knitting, as in life, there are terrible temptations that lead to inevitable and dissatisfying –- sometimes down right punishing -- consequences. We often know we are doing wrong, and sense that we will be unhappy in the long run; and yet, some force within us pushes us towards lazy, thoughtless, and all-around wrong decisions.

In knitting, as in life, there is a Devil that goads us to make poor choices, which seem in the short term to be quick-fixes, easy answers, viable options. This Devil tells us that a red worsted weight acrylic is “just as good” as its fine wool counterpart (particularly since the scarf it will become is “only” for your Aunt Maisie.). The Devil, in a hurry to be on to the next project, tells us that the scarf is “plenty long enough” when we know that it doesn’t have nearly the drape we wanted it to have. The Devil tells us to finish fast, to forget about weaving in the ends, to settle for the not-quite-right buttons (what business do you have, trying to be perfect? Isn’t it enough that you knitted the damned thing?), knowing full well that we will repent in leisure, spending our years wincing at too-short cuffs, unloved acrylic hats through which the wind whips unheeded, and myriad projects in which we can read our own lack of commitment as clearly as if the words were stitched upon it directly.

Do not fall prey to the “logic” of the Devil, or to his need to satisfy his own whims through your work. These whims present themselves in more ways than just that of coaxing you to knit on the cheap. Learn to identify the Devil in your work, so that you can nip his influence in the bud.

***

more rhetorical questions for the KNITTING TAROT scholars among us:

* how is the text for the devil similar to that of the "ill-dignified" empress? there's SOME overlap, to be sure... but even that overlap isn't identical. so....

* how is it different?

* and what does it mean if they turn up NEXT to each other in your reading?

food for thought! i am grateful to both natalie and belinda for these lessons and new opportunities to think about the KT and what it sparks.

six of needles: pride


It is more than okay to be proud of what you knit. To put a finer point on it – it is not only right to be proud of what you knit, as you wear it down the street and check your reflection in store windows – but it is correct and even necessary to acknowledge the acclaim that comes from others. Others are going to tell you how beautiful your work is. And the Six of Needles is about that kind of outside acknowledgement, that your work is admirable. Feel good about that! Be gracious, and enjoy the oohing and aahing. You know how others’ work inspires you. It is an honor to think you may inspire someone else the same way. Show those people whom you may inspire, just how good it feels to make something gorgeous.

six of spindles: giving and mentoring


The Six of Spindles concerns resources, and the perspectives of individuals regarding those resources. Think of the Universe as an ocean of knitting give-and-take. One wave bobs to the surface, and then subsides. Another wave takes its place. But quite possibly, this second wave is composed, in part, of the first wave. Things are not as separate as they seem.

In the spirit of Giving and Mentoring, remember as well that it is not always the knitter who has something to give. Certainly, give, and teach: donate hats for the heads of people you may never meet. Teach others to cable, and send them on their way. But remember that even in doing this that you are on the receiving end as well as the giving one. There may come a time when it seems more obvious, but it is always true, no matter which side is showing.

Learning and teaching, giving and receiving all create waves in the same knitting ocean, and that ocean is comprised not only of “master knitters”, but of every person and beast who has ever felt a stitch of knitwear against their skin or fur, and of everyone in between.

nine of spindles: knitting autonomy


This is a very specific moment in a knitter’s experience. You have come to a crucial point in your project; a point at which you plan to go to your local knitting store, sit down for an hour or so, and get some help. After all, when you’ve never done a certain step before – mitering, buttonholes, whatever – it’s nice to have the support of someone you trust nearby.

But it rains. So you don’t go out. Then it’s Monday, and the store is closed. You work on another project, to pass the time, but it’s just not the same.

You peek inside the bag you have set aside, containing your unfinished project and its almost-insurmountable challenge. And you want to work on it. So bad. So bad, that you take it out of the bag. Grab a few reference books. Turn off the television and stereo for better concentration. And -- in an hour or two -- you’ve done it. Done what you hadn’t even considered doing on your own, until, suddenly, you did.

You are more of a knitter than you thought you were. Your patience and self-reliance have earned you a new level of satisfaction, and a well-earned one. That’s the graceful, elevated, resourceful autonomy of the Nine of Spindles.

seven of needles: underneath the bunker


You hear people talk about “sacrifices” that we must make in life, usually for the things we love. Sometimes, what we define as “sacrifice”, however, is too obvious, too clear-cut, too expected.

When you eat, sleep and breathe knitting, it can be difficult to defend the time, much less the posture, that you require to work. You may appear, to others, to be merely camped on the couch in front of the television. Someone may have the gall to tell you you are “wasting your life”. That you should “get up and do something”. People who say things like this are demonstrating that they do not see the full picture; otherwise, they would be nervous about the fact that you could create any variety of crime scenes with the tools in your immediate vicinity, and that they are more likely to end up as a chalk outline on the floor than they are the recipient of a new cardigan.

Sometimes the sacrifice we make for our craft or our passion is the sacrifice of the outward appearance of doing something of “value”. If you want to be really creative, if you want to foment an exciting, lip-smacking body of needlework – then your ass is going to be planted somewhere while you do it. It’s as simple as that. Knitting at nine-thirty in the morning? Nothing shameful in it. Knitting isn’t swilling gin, and it isn’t what we do when everything else “important” is done. Believe that knitting is important, and that knitting requires your best energies, and in time, there will be evidence. At your most productive time of the day – hole up! And knit!

It has been a long time since we did a three-card reading using the KNITTING TAROT, at least on this page. A few months ago, I did a private reading for a knitter who was in the process of finishing a long put-off sweater for a sister with whom she had a very strained -- sometimes estranged -- relationship. Since then, the knitter has finished the sweater, and presented it to her sister.

She asked for another reading this week, specifically to see if there was a shift in the cards now that the sweater had changed hands. "I think of the sweater as a thread between her and I that I just happened to shape into a sweater with two needles. So what kind of energy has been created by her now 'holding' the other end of the 'thread'?"

It was very validating to see the Eight of Gauge as the first card in the reading; I knew we had gotten the "right" cards for our knitter! The Eight of Gauge is the Stranded Knitter. Specifically, this card may speak to a situation as mundane as having forgotten one's knitting when going on a trip, or being unable to work on a project due to lack of funds or inability to get the yarn one needs to keep going. In this case, the Tarot being smarter than us all, the Eight of Gauge had something to point out that I hadn't really thought of before; the fact that our querent has finished the sweater for her sister may in fact leave her feeling stranded now, with no "active" way to "work on" her relationship with her sister. There’s no knitting in sight, and it’s not because you don’t want there to be. This fish-out-of-water feeling is at the heart of the Eight of Gauge, and hopefully, it’s a warning that comes in the nick of time.

Why a "warning"? In this case, it's not a "warning" to remember to take your knitting bag on that long family trip, nor a "warning" to make sure your local yarn store has stocked the yarn you need to complete your project. It's more of a warning against unrealistic expectations. Our knitter/querent says, in her own words, "what kind of energy has been created by her (the querent's sister) now 'holding' the other end of the 'thread'?" By tomorrow, or next week, or next month, when a relationship that has been troubled for many years is still not "all better", our knitter/querent may in fact feel what, in the most literal sense, is true: her sister now holds both ends of that thread. And now that the sweater is finished and given over to it's recipient, our querent/knitter may feel like a Stranded Knitter indeed.

What is she to do next? For one thing, accept that not only is this relationship improving, that many others are quite good. The Ten of Skeins says: make the best of your bounty. If, now that the sweater is finished, our knitter/querent wants to splash out on some big new yarn purchases and prepare for a big new project, for herself or someone else, now would be a nice time to do it -- something exciting, distracting, a new page in the book.

Also, with the last card, the Prince of Spindles, I sense an admonishment to remember some of the human characteristics that may have contributed to the sisters' difficulties in the first place: The Prince of Spindles (who can be either male or female) may be inclined to elevate his fastidiousness to a rigid and stifling compulsion. Irregularities are not a source of “character” to the Prince of Spindles; they are anathema.

Is this a characteristic of our knitter/querent, or of her sister? They themselves know best, but in either case, such traits and their consequences are not entirely erased by the gift of a handmade sweater, although they may be tempered by one. At the heart of it all is still two people, and some time.

three of needles - stitch authorship
You have done it! You sat down with nothing but needles and some scrap yarn, a pen and some graph paper. And you’ve invented something – a stitch, a chart –of your very own.

This isn’t the same thrill of creation that we get when finishing up a completed project. This is different: you have actually invented, from nothing, a measurable unit of transport. A cable design that no one has ever seen the likes of. A colored chart that perfectly captures the hollyhock next to your mailbox. Whatever it may be, it’s alive now, in knitting, in a way that you want to share. You’ve written it down, not just so you will remember how you yourself did it, but as a map for others.

ace of spindles - knitting to meet physical need


Sometimes, knitting can sow the seeds of revolution, but revolutionaries can’t hear the call if their ears are frozen.

The biggest among us, and the tiniest, need covered heads, warm hands and toes. It is easy to concede that these things are “necessary”, but it is sometimes harder to visualize how knitting can be a means to an end other than knitting. It can!

We all have our favorite business and charities which we support and patronize. Write a check to your city’s Mural Arts program this year – or knit a hat for every muralist who paints, high on scaffolding, during the cold months of the year. Think of how far eight plain, warm, good wool hats can go, given to eight individuals – any eight individuals, whether they are muralists, dog walkers, canvassers, or emergency workers. We all perform better when we are protected against inhospitable conditions.

The Ace of Spindles is a call to look for need, and ways to meet that need, in your knitting basket. Take out, or begin, the project that may start a chain reaction. Preparedness feeds fortitude! Keep it simple, make it work, and hand it off, in thanks and in support.

as the NOTIFY list for the KNITTING TAROT grows and grows, it occurs to me that many folks on the list "missed out" on watching the cards take shape one by one. so, for a while anyway, we're going to use the "ask the knitting tarot" section to focus on a single card from the deck at a time, with the complete text as it will appear in the book. with the members on the list increasing, and with the way we've been running the page in recent months, a lot of people have never seen the illustrations and text-in-full for a single card!

so, let us take time to meditate on...

X. the swift and winder


You are winding your yarn, you are turning the crank. Sure, it’s you. But where, in that center-pull ball that you’re making, is that one little fleck of red that is so pretty against the green? You don’t have a clue.

Think of beautiful hand-dyed yarns, or unpredictable tweeds. Sometimes we manage to identify tiny sections of color, within balls or skeins – non-knitters are amazed by this – and begin a campaign of hoping that that part will end up in a certain “place of honor” on a sweater or hat. Wabi-sabi dyeing or seemingly haphazard hand-painting has created an “imperfection” that, to our eye, will serve as an appealing matrix in the garment we are knitting.

Sure, anybody can just cut the yarn and move things around. That’s allowed. But what are we using – depending upon, and having faith in – when we stubbornly decide to wait it out, and see exactly where that little bit of rosy pink in the yellow decides to put itself?

In any traditional Tarot deck,this force would be illustrated by the Wheel. Spin any wheel in any Tarot deck, and your chances are as good as the next person’s of getting what you want. The same is true in the Knitting Tarot. Wind that ball, and accept that the special parts are where they are. They might be hidden away snugly, or they might be right on the surface. They might meet up with your needles where you think they will be best appreciated – and then again, maybe they know something you don’t. Nothing will ever be accessible to you all at once, but in time, it all will be.

I have been wrestling with my desire to spin and not having the time to practice enough to get to a point where the finished product meets my standards. I am impatient and just wanna be good so I get frustrated. In fact I am, as many knitters do, wrestling with finding the time to practice my craft. For example I have a little pile of projects I want to knit but am bogged down by stuff I have to knit in novelty yarn non-me colors no less. I find myself not wanting to keep my commitments to knit/spin or worse just not knit/spin at all. Can the tarot possibly help me find some sorta balance?

I think we have a particularly useful reading here, but maybe not an obvious one. Let's start in the center with the Eight of Needles: Assembly. Finishing. Yes, it's important, and the Knitting Tarot, in this case, does not in any way suggest abandoning the "committed" projects (which, in novelty and non-you yarns and colors, seem to be for gifts.) The Knitting Tarot perceives finishing these items as important: it’s time to finish what you’ve started. The Knitting Tarot, however, does not appear to endorse starting any such projects. So don't, even if you thought you were going to.

Now, since it seems appropriate to do so, let's skip to the last card. (Everything's all happening at once this time of year anyway, isn't it?) The Five of Spindles represents a dearth of everything. No duh. You know this yourself, but I'm sure it's validating to hear it; you've been spending too much, in time and resources, on this novelty-yarn gift knitting. Maybe not "too much" for the recipients of the gifts to appreciate; maybe not "too much" in anyone else's eyes at all. But, for you, too much, indeed. You've been spending, and you're spent.

Head back to the front, where the energy of the King of Gauge will assist not only in parceling out the resources necessary to finishing what you "have to" finish, but can help you use the time you spare for your own growth as a knitter and spinner.

Here's one very specific hint: when burned out from knitting for others, and finding a little time of "your own" on your hands, but feeling like you just can't knit or spin happily, even though it's for "you"? Don't force yourself. Read and study. Talk to an experienced spinner! Sure, practice-practice-practice is what will get your handspun up to your own high standards in the long run, but the "investigative" approach is a hallmark of the King of Gauge's thinking, as is the belief that it takes more than just working with your hands to get these things right. The King of Gauge can make sense not only of what we can’t, but he can often make sense of what doesn’t even exist yet. It almost seems as though he’s a translator between worlds; as though he can hear challenging stitch patterns being knit in his mind.

Finish what you've started. Put a price -- and time -- cap on these projects for other people. Don't start anything that isn't already in the works! And if that takes up all the energy you have for actual knitting and spinning, then just talk about it, read about it, and think about it -- for now. Do this, and more time and energy (not to mention cash) will open up for your more personal pursuits. And you will get more out of them -- possibly more than you would have with nothing but practice-practice-practice alone.

I have some lovely brown wool that I bought in June. I've really only been knitting for about 10 months. I made a lot of scarves for Christmas presents (they looked like snakes and were very cute.) I've made a sweater for my daughter, but it turned out to be too small. I made a hat, and a baby blanket for a niece and a baby sweater for a friend and another kid sweater for my nephew.

Anyway, I finally decided it was time to make something for myself, so I got this lovely undyed brown wool, and I found a pattern for a simple pullover. People have told me that the yarn is "scratchy," but I actually like scratchy. I think these same people will find the pattern "boxy," but I actually like boxy. So that's all good. Anyway -- part of my problem is with gauge. I never ever get the gauge required with the needles suggested. My knitting is always looser, and I need to use smaller needles and do complicated mathematics -- I did all this, I swear I did! I cast on once, and after about an inch or two, I realized that the sweater was going to be too big. So I took it off and cast on again and I knit and knit and knit -- and now I'm about an inch short of beginning the neck shaping on the front (I started with the front) and I think it's about two inches smaller than it should be. !!!

What should I do? Should I rip it out and start again? I'm really not a perfectionist, but I really do want the thing to fit. I want it to be my favorite sweater! Could I just use the piece I'm currently knitting as the back, and then just make the front four inches bigger than the back? Would that look retarded?

I need help with my sweater, but I have a larger gauge issue, too. Is it normal to have so much trouble getting the thing to be the size you want?

Thanks,

-Really wanting this sweater to work without ripping out a whole bunch
of knitting.

I was particularly happy to see the cards in this reading because they illustrate what use Tarot can be, when you don't get the cards that seem like "obvious" answers to your questions. In this case, it seemed "obvious" to me that Major card XI. -- the Gauge Swatch -- could have been a big part of this reading. It wasn't.

Perhaps this is because, in this case, the subconscious has enough going on and enough it wants to let you in on, and since it has to pick its battles it's really hoping, your subconscious is, that you understand consciously that if you "never ever get the gauge required with the needles suggested", you should use different needles. Yarn does not know what size the needles working it are. You can change needle sizes without your yarn seeing you do it. "Complicated mathematics" should not enter into it.

That said, was i surprised to see the Princess of Skeins in this reading? Not a bit. After all, the thing that stood out to me most in this entire query was:

I want it to be my favorite sweater!

It was a very heartfelt and of course inspiring thing to say. And par for the course from a Princess of Skeins, who is described as a person in your life, male or female, who is a grateful recipient of your knitted gifts, solely because they have come from your hands and mind. Is it possible for knitter and recipient to be the same person and still embody this quality? Of course! And you clearly embody it, with statements such as I actually like scratchy, and with your honest delight with Christmas scarves that "looked like snakes".

What will save your sweater ultimately (you see we have started at the end of the reading, with the last card), will be your love for it. You love your yarn, you love your boxy pattern, and you seem particularly elastic in being able to forgive your own mistakes, and these are the traits in you, a true Princess, which will make it possible for this, maybe, to be your favorite sweater.

Should you rip it all out and start again? Please get to your local yarn store, or to a friend who has knitted for longer than you have (and gets things to be the size she or he wants them to be). Let someone with experience teach you about gauge, and how to get it. It's going to be easier than you think, and it's going to be like a lightbulb going on above your head, and that light is going to stay on for you always... hence, the Sun. What was once an unreadable code, indicative of nothing but trouble, is now a clear, concise plan of action and a herald of success. You see where you are going with this. How could it have ever seemed difficult? But, there is some chronology to a three-card reading, and if we see the light going on above your head before we see you loving that sweater... sounds to me like you are going to be applying new knowledge to new knitting.

This middle card takes some flexibility to apply. Nothing in your query suggests that "Too Much Stash", as illustrated in the Seven of Skeins, is your problem. So don't think of that underused basket of goodies as being full of yarn, but instead, bits and pieces of concepts and rules that you are aware of, but not yet in charge of. You are no longer accomplishing what your myriad tools were meant to help you accomplish. Think of your fledgling knowledge of gauge and what it means as one of these tools, and it will seem very clear.

This reading suggests, both in the cards that have appeared and the cards that have not appeared, that you are in no way lazy, and you are not so much avoiding swatching for gauge as just lacking understanding of it, and your enthusiasm -- and ability to love the imperfect -- is getting in your way. It won't continue to, with a little knowledge.

My friend has a knitting problem, and she'd like some guidance.

She bought beautiful yarn, a long time ago--enough to make a sweater. It's a wool/silk tweed, and was (at the time, at least) a major investment. So far, she's knit it three times: the first time, her gauge changed from swatch to garment, and the sweater was as big as a sleeping bag. The second time, the pattern was too complicated; it didn't read, and it was a miserable nuisance to follow. She ripped it out when she was halfway up the back. The third time, there was too much stockinette--trying to maintain an acceptably even gauge on the unyielding silk hurt her hands.

The yarn has been dormant for several years, but is calling to her again. She's obviously a more experienced knitter by now, so some mistakes should be easier to avoid. But the question is, is this yarn cursed? Is any project she begins with it doomed to failure?

Sign me,

Not Usually Superstitious, But Beginning to Wonder

There's definitely something weird about that yarn.

We know this, because (as we crow with delight upon seeing how well this Knitting Tarot stuff works), we see the Moon at the helm of our reading. The Moon represents all that is mysterious, and when combined with the Prince of Gauge, it casts, if not suspicion, desire to examine the expectations of the knitter in question. Yeah, there's something weird about the yarn, something that we may never actually come around to understanding. Knitting, like the Moon, can be a dark, anxious, shadowy place. If something as simple as a Tarot card could help you navigate it, it wouldn’t be all that it is.

How are you unable to find your way in your knitting? This isn’t about not being able to memorize your Fair Isle chart; it’s about your mind, and your heart.

One cannot knit by the light of the Moon alone. Then again, yarn is not supposed to put our motivations in the crosshairs and behave differently if it does not sense purity of intention. Yarn may be organic, active, even "energized", but it's not the dominant partner in the yarn/knitter relationship. And in this instance, this yarn -- which does seem a bit impish, changing gauge seemingly at will -- is paired with a Prince of Gauge-type of knitter, far from the easiest knitter to please. In fact, "too much stockinette", which you describe as the problem in the most recent effort upon this yarn, is exactly the kind of complaint one could expect from someone for whom knitting is a critical pursuit, sometimes divorced from issues of sensitivity and aesthetics. Perhaps this particular yarn is really best at showcasing itself simply, and that is not necessarily enough for your friend in terms of what she wants to bring to the partnership.

At this point, this is definitely a yarn with a dark "history" (and probably a bit of wear and tear on at least some of it, as well.) In fact, since the yarn has been knit so many times over, the actual amount originally purchased has probably dwindled -- so that it is no longer enough for a sweater. Here is where the Four of Needles comes in -- suggesting that numerous, smaller, detailed successes may be in order. This might mean not using this yarn for a sweater, but instead for a hat and glove set. Not practical for the yarn? Then maybe this stuff was only ever meant to be some of a sweater -- a sweater with fancy detailing (in a more appropriate yarn) to satisfy your friend's hands. Or -- how about a sleeveless shell to go under a matching cardigan that incorporates some of the original yarn, as well as other yarns too?

Make no mistake -- it is a yarn to be approached carefully. But with forethought and reasonable expectations, and eyes open to one's own needs and desires as a knitter as well as a wearer of garments, a truce can be made, and a fresh start for all!

I have been working on one project alone -- a Fair Isle cardigan -- for eight weeks straight. I have not touched another project, although I am itching to begin work on an afghan for which I have the pattern, but not the yarn.

I need this Fair Isle to be finished for a birthday present in a month, but I'm so sick of working on it, and it is killing my eyes! I really want to work on this afghan (which will just be for me and has no deadline)! If I start on the afghan though, there is no telling whether or not I'll finish the cardigan in time for my aunt's birthday. For that matter, I at least HAVE all the yarn for the cardigan -- I don't have what I need for the afghan though, and it probably isn't the best month to make that purchase.

Although all signs point toward just digging in and working my fingers to the bone on the cardigan, I am hoping there is a solution that I just don't see!

First of all, you can indeed breathe a sigh of relief to know that, regardless of whether or not the sweater you are knitting is finished by its "deadline", your Aunt will appreciate it -- and probably even wear it in July, if that's when she gets it! We see the Princess of Skeins in this reading, and she is a person in your life, male or female, who is a grateful recipient of your knitted gifts, solely because they have come from your hands and mind.

At the same time, knitting is not supposed to be a terrible chore, and right now it sounds like it is. the Five of Spindles tell us that A rest may be necessary. If you “soldier ahead” against the needs of your body, you will pay for it, and so will your knitting. You are not a knitting machine; your “shortcomings” are the reason that anyone invented such a machine at all.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's time to break the bank and go for that afghan yarn! The Five of Spindles ALSO reminds us that money may be tight. Maybe just enough to swatch for the afghan -- and take a little break from the cardigan -- will be enough of a rest and change!

After all, as we see in the Two of Spindles card that closes our reading, a reminder to balance what “needs” to be addressed in your work, but think primarily about what it is that you’d like to do for hours, while listening to music, all other to-do’s be damned. If you can combine the two, there's nothing you can't do!