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I love to knit. Not discounting the occasional cuss word when perfect is not achieved, I have to say I find it relaxing and knitting brings me peace.

That said, there was 'The Sweater'.

I had picked out a sweet cabled cardigan for my then four year old granddaughter. Ashley has soft brown hair and a pixie look about her. When I looked at that pattern, I pictured her romping through fields of wild flowers with a gentle breeze blowing through her tumbling locks'.get the picture?

I picked a steel blue yarn and settled into my rocker for a decent session of knitting. Armed with a cup of tea, I cast on the back of 'The Sweater'. I will not go into the detail of the trials and tribulations of completing a sweater I know originated in the depths of hell. When I was too far into the project to even consider frogging it, I had faced typos, pattern errors and instructions that skipped entire sections of needed directions.

I tensed every time I even looked at the knitting bag that held that sweater. I found any excuse to start and knit to completion many other projects while 'The Sweater' lay in wait. Christmas loomed. I NEEDED to get on with Ashley's sweater. At this point all my other grandchildren had a finished sweater.

One morning as I was complaining to my daughter, Lori, about my ordeal, she chastised me for knitting bad thoughts and vibes into her niece's gift.

That conversation got me to thinking. Knitting a gift for someone we love is as close to hugging them as we can get without actually enveloping them in our arms. Generally, as I knit on something for someone I love, I am filled with warmth and feelings of joy. I think that's why we get so passionate about knitting. We are literally sharing a piece of ourselves with the recipient.

After that chat with Lori I decided to change my attitude about Ashley's sweater. As I knit on it, I thought about how beautifully the pieces were fitting together, I patted myself on the back for overcoming a very poorly written pattern and creating a lovely sweater.

When I wrapped that sweater in tissue I actually caressed it before putting the box cover on. I loved that sweater.

I will never knit harsh thoughts into another gift for a cherished loved one. I will, good naturedly, approach each difficult step with positive thoughts and I will frog the sucker immediately if I feel one iota of negativity flowing from my fingers to that yarn!