Bennet Bandana
When I was in high school, I learned how to knit and I would knit through my freshman year of college. I remember always loving going to the yarn store to see all the colors and touching all the different skeins. Despite my fascination, I never moved past the basics of knitting a long rectangular scarf. Prior to my mastectomy, I went to a beautiful shop here in town known for their kits and beautiful curation of supplies. The owner helped me pick out a few kits she thought would be good to do while I was recovering. I spotted the Bennet Bandana and thought, I know how to knit, how hard could it be?
Little did I know that the picot lace edge and making a triangle shape would prove harder than I thought. The first day I got the kit out, I spent all day starting, unraveling, and starting again trying to understand how it would look and wanting to make it look good. Remember, when I said I was a recovering perfectionist?
My goal was to make this bandana for my sister’s birthday, she was my main caregiver after my mastectomy. She stayed with me for weeks after my surgery to help me — flushing my drains, taking me to my follow-ups, cooking delicious meals, making sure I was keeping my arms down, and tucking me into what we would endearingly term my “pillow prison”. Anyone else find that being forced to sleep on your back was one of the worst parts?
I had a month until her birthday and after having nothing to show for after the first six hour day of trying, I was starting to worry I wouldn’t have anything and might need to pivot my birthday gift idea. However, through perseverance I was able to not only make one practice bandana that my pup Pica was willing to model for me, but I also made another bandana that I gave to my sister.
There is a wonderful quote by Canadian architect, Raymond Moriyama:
“There is magic in imperfection.”
I was willing to let go of the need to knit the perfect bandana and find the magic and beauty in the imperfection. Similar to my life story right now, I am finding magic in my imperfect journey. I think that is what keeps drawing me back to crafting — it is a meditative and gentle reminder to let go, be present, and find beauty in the process.
Want to make your own Bennet Bandana? Flax & Twine’s kit has everything you need from yarn to needles to the most wonderful scissors. I chose the color Rust, but I will say Spruce was a close second.