I’d Rather Be Sailing/Knitting

Written by Keira Mooar

Oftentimes I’m on the Red Line heading to Cambridge and I see the FJs, 420s, and what look like Sunfishes out on the water, bobbing. These fleeting moments (get it, like a fleet?) are the only contact I get with water now. 

It already feels like the Boston weather is fighting against me. I have been getting a lot of nosebleeds, for many reasons, but they are primarily due to the lack of humidity and sensitive skin. I used to get nose bleeds from sailing and the salt water. When the air is dryer the skin inside your nose can dry out, the culprit this time is New England air.

There are a lot of things I miss about the Jersey Shore, but the biggest right now has to be the ocean. I miss the smell of the ocean and the sound of the water at high tide when the waves crash against the sand. I used to take frequent walks to a jetty and just sit, looking at the water. I loved being by the ocean so much that I would even do my math homework or read on the beach in late summer and early fall. 

Even though I find myself craving being on the water, I do not miss what it takes to be on a competitive sailing team. In between sets at regattas for my school’s sailing team I would do my homework and try to tune out my teammates’ conversations. I also hate swimming, being in the water, and I especially hate capsizing. 

After reflection, I realized I don’t want to be on another sailing team, I just want another extra thing to do. I love doing repetitive things to calm my mind, which is part of why I liked sailing. So, I wracked my brain for another hobby that does the same thing for me. I started knitting again.

I discovered knitting in a two week fiber arts elective an english and art teacher ran that I never had in class but I also liked them. I knew how to crochet and hand sew but they always frustrated me, so I thought learning about different fiber arts would be cool. I absolutely fell in love with knitting and picked it up really quickly. I’m actually friends with my art teacher on Ravelry, which is a knitting and crochet pattern platform.

I’m currently working on a 90’s Vogue pattern I started knitting over the summer. I knitted my roommate a bedside pouch and I’m working on one right now for my friend after I finished the back part of the sweater. Sometimes I just have to let projects sit for a bit so I don’t get bored of it. 

Knitting almost replaces my Roblox habit completely, which is nice because it’s embarrassing to lose an entire day on a library game. On Friday, after getting to Venus in Smoothie Tycoon, the map annoyed me so I switched to a library game. Next thing I knew it was 3 in the afternoon.

Sometimes I have to listen to a podcast for homework, and knitting is a nice way for me to stay busy while sitting and listening. I can also watch movies while I knit because I don’t have to look at my hands. So when I watch films for class I will sometimes knit through them. I have debated bringing my knitting needles to class, but it only makes sense for lectures—I knit my way through Emersonian Foundations of Success. 

I’m also working my way through MTV reality show Jersey Shore while I knit lately, which has been entertaining and surprisingly cathartic. Whenever I feel the itch to be at the boardwalk or a house party I turn on the show and I’m okay again. Jersey Shore also makes me miss working at the outlet mall. I’m in a weird limbo where I’m still 17 until January, and all the retail jobs I’ve tried to apply to have a minimum age of 18. In the first season the cast works as retail employees on the boardwalk, so watching Snooki hang shirts on hangers makes me miss it a bit.

Repetitiveness can be very calming for me, and I can’t help but draw a comparison between jibing downwind to tacking on the upwinds and purling to knitting. It’s both just weaves and loops. Let me know if you have any trashy reality tv show recommendations for after I get through Jersey Shore! I’m gonna get back to knitting.